I Don't Date Vampires
by INSANITY - BRILLIANCE
Summary: Katherine Taylor was a very rational person. She didn't believe in the supernatural, at least not until she came to Cross Academy and met a certain blonde hair blue eyed vampire. Hanabusa Aidou didn't like humans. They were below him something to be pitied not admired. Imagine his surprise when his best friend became a human girl. An unlikely friendship of two unlikely people.
1. Prologue

**I Don't Date Vampires  
Prologue  
**_**"Living Out of a Suitcase"**_

Cross Academy was one of the most prestigious boarding schools in Japan. Everyone wanted to attend, be part of the school. It was rumored that thousands of applicants were turned down each year and getting accepted to such a place was a once in a lifetime chance. Anyone would be crazy to turn that chance down. However the girl standing in front of the imposing gates didn't feel any excitement coming to a place like this. Her olive green eyes studying her surroundings with distain and boredom as she pulled two large black suitcases behind her and a violin slung over her shoulder.

Katherine Taylor had been surprised when her uncle had come into their hotel suite announcing that she would be going to a Japanese boarding school for seven months while he was away on one of his writing assignments. She never would have imagined going to a boarding school like this in her life.

Katherine was lying on a queen size bed reading a biography on the Romanovs when she heard the door slam. Her golden brown waves spiraling around her head like a halo. "Lucian," she called in acknowledgement. Her uncle came to the door of the room that was acting as her temporary bedroom.

"Kit," He said leaning on the doorframe. His mouth formed a hardline and his hazel eyes were narrowed. It was the expression he tended to have when he had to give the girl bad news. It was the same face he had when he told her that her parents were missing. The face that he had when Katherine had lowered two empty caskets into the ground because they never did find their bodies. So when Katherine saw that face she immediately sat up. "I have something I need to discuss with you," he told her cryptically before stepping out into the main living area of the suite.

Katherine hopped off the bed and followed him without question. He plopped down in one of the arm chairs and she did the same. "Okay so before I say anything I need you to promise me something," Lucian said seriously, "promise that you will let me finish completely before you respond. Okay?"

Katherine nodded, "Okay I promise. Just tell me why you came in here like someone just died."

Lucian let out a long sigh. "I got another writing job. I have to go to Iraq and do a piece on the American soldiers there. Of course for obvious reason you can't come with me this time, so I've arranged for you to attend a boarding school in Japan. Cross Academy," he explained calmly. Katherine was about to respond but he gave her a look clearly saying that he wasn't finished. "It's a very prestigious school and it would be good for you to be around people your own age. You'll be leaving tomorrow night so get packed," Katherine processed this information rationally. She wanted to protest, but as a freelance Journalist her uncle tended to take what was given to him.

"How long will you be gone," she inquired?

"Seven months. I know that sounds like a long time, but I'll be back to pick you up by the end of the school year."

She shrugged, "You gotta do what you gotta do. Just don't get yourself killed in the process." Lucian smiled. He knew she wouldn't take this the wrong way. Katherine has always been a very rational person since she was a little girl, thinking things through before she formed a reaction. "I guess I should get packing now. I'll admit I'm going to be a little disappointed to be leaving London," she glanced out the window of the sky rise hotel as if taking in the view on last time trying to burn it into her memory.

"Well I'm sure we will both come back at some point," Lucian laughed. Katherine smiled and nodded. She had spent the rest of the day packing up her measly belongings into her suitcases and Lucian had taken her sightseeing one last time prior to driving her to the airport. Where she had given her uncle a big hug and then boarded the plane.

So that was the story of how she came to be here struggling to pull two suitcases up the stairs because these dorms apparently were too fancy to have elevators. She had decided to take one suitcase at a time up the stairs figuring that would be easiest. She had gotten the first suitcase to her floor and was working on the second one when she heard someone call to her. "Oh, here let me help you with that," a girl came running down the steps. She had short brown hair and brown eyes and was wearing a black uniform with a white arm band. The girl grabbed one of the handles taking some of the weight from Katherine's hands.

When the suitcase was placed down at the top of the stairs both girls were slightly out of breath, "Wow that was heavy," the brunette commented. "My name is Yuuki by the way," she told Katherine.

"Arigatou Yuuki-san. Oname wa Katherine desu," she replied in perfect Japanese.

"What in there anyways," she asked staring at the suitcase as if she had some sort of X-ray vision so she could see the contents it contained?

"Books, pictures, music," she told her. Yuuki nodded signifying that she heard her.

"I take it you're a transfer student. We don't get many of those around here, especially not in the middle of the school year like this. But I'm sure you'll fit in just fine here. Where are you from anyways you have in accent," Yuuki rambled as Katherine regarded which way she should go to find her room.

"I could say the same thing about you," Katherine pointed out causing Yuuki to laugh, "I'm from the states though. Umm. Do you happen to know where room 136 is?"

"136? Why that's right across the hall from my room. Come on I'll show you," Yuuki said joyously gesturing for her to follow. She took one of the girl's suitcases and led her through the corridors. They stopped at one of the rooms where Yuuki pointed, "That's my room that I share with my roommate Yori-chan. She's in class right now, but I'll be sure to bring her by to meet you. Feel free to stop by anytime in case you need anything."

"Okay. Arigatou Yuuki," Katherine replied.

"I have to get back to class, but I'll stop by later, Okay. Maybe give you a tour of the place before curfew," she added with a smile. Then running down the hall the way they came to get back to her classes.

'_Well she's nice,'_ Katherine thought taking out the key and unlocking the thick wooden door. Since she was transferring in the middle of the year the only rooms available were singles, which she kind of lucked out on. The girl had never been a fan of sharing her living space with someone she didn't know, it was often a problem for her when Lucian and her had to stay in Hostels together sleeping around a bunch of strangers. When that happened she generally didn't sleep well.

This room was quaint there was a single bed in the corner and two windows instead of the typical single window because she was on a corner. There was a desk for homework a large cork bulletin board hung on one of the walls under it a series of shelves. The walls were white and everything looked fairly plain, but it was going to be her home for the time being. Katherine rolled in her two suitcases and shut the door there was already a fluffy white down duvet and pillow on the bed with sheets. So she didn't need to get those, but she would still probably need to go shopping anyways and pick up a few things.

She set down her violin on the bed and went about unpacking her clothes. Over time she had learned to live with only the bare necessities. It makes sense when one is constantly traveling and Katherine Taylor did literally live out of a suitcase.

She had really only five of everything; five tank tops, five tee-shirts, five pairs of pants, five pairs of shorts, five sweaters, and five long-sleeved shirts. The only things she didn't have five pairs of were socks, underwear, bras, leggings, shoes, coats, swimsuits, and dresses. She took out her shirts first placing them in the second drawer from the top in the supplied dresser and then emptied the rest of her suitcase. She placed the only two dresses that she owned on hangers one a simple white sundress and the other a long-sleeved sweater dress in black.

Inside the closet with the dresses she placed her five pairs of shoes, not including the ones she was currently wearing (knee-high brown uggs) on the floor of the closet, (a pair of black ballet flats, white sandals, black leather ankle combat boots, and a pair of black high-top converse.) On the hangers she hung her long black trench coat and her black leather bomber jacket. She made a mental note to stop by the headmaster's office later and pick up her school uniform.

After unpacking her clothes the rest was quite easy to get organized. She placed the various CD's and books on the shelves and pinned several pictures of her and Lucian's travels on the bulletin board. The board was completely covered by the time she was done.

Looking around the room didn't look so plain anymore; it actually looked like someone lived there. The pictures, music, and books along with a colorful patched rug that Katherine had picked up in India added personality to the room. Of course it still looked a little plain, but there wasn't much she could do about that at the moment. Katherine looked at the digital clock by the bed telling her it was about 4:30 p.m. in whatever time zone she was in.

The jetlag was really starting to affect her and she let out a yawn. "Okay, I guess I'll skype Lucian," she told herself sitting down at the desk. It took a couple minutes for the computer to turn on, and a couple more minutes for her uncle to answer.

"Kit."

"Hey Lucian," she gave a little wave as her uncle appeared on the screen. "How is Iraq," she inquired curiously? He looked like he was sitting in a bunker of some sort, probably the barracks. His black hair messed up slightly perhaps having just woken up from sleeping.

"Honestly it's kind of boring. There's nothing around here for miles, it's a fucking desert," he informed her jadedly. Katherine smiled. "How is Japan? More interesting than here I hope."

Katherine yawned again. "It's fine," she stated tiredly, "I had a little trouble getting my stuff up the stairs. This place is apparently above elevators. But one of the students helped me. She offered to give me a tour later and I just finished unpacking all my stuff."

"Oh. Show me your room," Lucian more or less ordered. Katherine picked up the laptop and walked him around the room sort of speak. She showed him the bed, desk, shelves, and the view out the windows. "It's nice. You should be comfortable there. Are you going to join orchestra," he questioned after she set him back on the desk?

"I don't know. It's probably all full considering that I came here at such a weird time. I think I'm just going to get my bearings first before I make any of those decisions," she told him. He nodded accepting her answer.

"That sounds like a good plan. Very practical like always."

Katherine frowned, "You make me sound like a dull old geezer."

Lucian laughed; his eyes crinkling around the edges. "I didn't mean to imply that Kit. I, of all people, know you're not dull. Remember the time you broke your hand or when you ate that scorpion. Nope definitely not dull," he said seriously as he could through his laughter.

"If I remember correctly I only ate that scorpion because I lost a bet with you. And me breaking my hand was kinda also your fault," Katherine pointed out.

"It's my fault that you couldn't hold your liquor," he asked innocently?

Katherine huffed about to shoot back a retort in her colorful vocabulary when she there was a knock at her door. "Hold on a minute," she told her uncle standing; walking across the room opening the door. She opened the door to see Yuuki standing there smiling.

"Hi, sorry am I interrupting anything," She asked politely?

Katherine shook her head, "No I was just skyping with my uncle. You can come in," she offered opening the door wider letting Yuuki pass.

Katherine walked back to her laptop, where Lucian was patiently waiting. "Sorry Luke," she said using the nickname she used to call him as a child, "I got to go. Stay away from those landmines."

Lucian chuckled, "Okay, Kit. Don't get into too much trouble without me."

"I make no promises," she retorted before hanging up. She closed her laptop screen before turning to Yuuki who was looking around her room.

"Wow you sure didn't waste any time. Is this all your stuff or is you uncle sending more?"

Katherine shook her head, "Nope this is it. I was planning on getting some things before I started school tomorrow, notebooks, pencils, the works. But other than that this is about it."

Yuuki looked at her curiously, "You're going to classes tomorrow. Don't you want to take a couple days to get used to the time zone?"

"Nah. I'm used to it. You ready to go," she brushed off lightly?

"Sure." Yuuki wasn't exactly sure what to make of this new transfer student. She wasn't anything like the other female Day-class students on campus. The students who were obsessed with the night class which seemed to be everyone here except her, Zero, and Yori. _'Perhaps it was a cultural thing,'_Yuuki mused_._

Katherine listened intently when Yuuki was giving the tour, not want to get lost later when trying to find her classes. The place was much bigger than she originally thought. The gothic style buildings were everywhere; towering over her staring everything down with a disapproving look. It was pretty intimidating actually.

"What's that over there," Katherine asked pointed to one the buildings? Unlike the other building they had seen this one was surrounded by a tall stone wall and there was a large iron gate with a moon symbol in the middle of a rose. It seemed to be more menacing than the other buildings like it gave off a warning not to go over there.

Yuuki looked to where she was pointing. "Oh that the Night class dormitory," she said with reluctance. She knew that the other girl was probably only being nice until she got what she wanted. '_God. When did I become so negative? It must be Zero. His attitude has to be contagious.'_ Yuuki criticized herself. However the next words out of Katherine's mouth proved Yuuki wrong.

"What's the Night Class?"

Yuuki looked at her shocked. "You don't know? Everyone that applies here knows. How can you not know," she blabbered puzzled?

Katherine sighed. "Okay one, I still have no idea what you're talking about. Two, I wasn't aware I even applied to this school," she started calmly holding up her fingers as she talked, "and three, why are you making such a big deal over this?"

"I'm sorry," she apologized, "It just I was surprised that's all. The students here are so obsessed with the night class and all the new students know exactly who they are." She gave Katherine a quizzical look having just realized something, "How were you not aware that you applied to this school?"

The other girl shrugged. "My uncle sent in the application without me knowing; snuck me the entrance exam somehow. That's most definitely how it must've happened. He's a pretty sly bastard when he wants to be. Anyways the night class," Katherine explained before bringing the conversation back to her original question.

Yuuki shook herself from her thoughts. "Oh. Okay right, so Cross academy is divided between the Night Class and the Day Class. As the names suggest one group uses the campus during the day and the other at night," she informed.

"What's so special about them? Why would everyone know who they are?"

"Well I guess you could say that the night class is kind of like," Yuuki paused thinking of an analogy Katherine could relate to, "Hollywood actors."

"Oh, that makes sense."

Yuuki nodded looking down at her watch. "Oh, I have to go find Zero. Katherine it was nice to meet you. Umm I guess I'll see you tomorrow," she told her hurriedly before running off. This effectively left Katherine standing all alone. She scanned around her trying to remember where to go.

She began to retrace her steps to find the administrative building where the headmaster's office was located. Once she found it we wandered the hallways not seeing any signs telling her where to go. '_This is peculiar. Why are there no signs? Do they want people to get lost?_'

She finally saw a light casting a dim glow on the floor of the hallway. Katherine crept forward slowly peering through the door. There was a man sitting quietly at a desk reading over some papers. He had long light blonde color hair that he tied back into a low ponytail. The light from the desk lamp casted a glare off his thin wire rimmed glasses.

Katherine raised her hand and gave two quick raps on the door. He looked up from his work, "Come in." She pushed the door open wider stepping into the room. He looked at her curiously setting down his pencil, "Yes?"

"My name's Katherine Taylor I'm looking for the Headmaster. I'm a transfer student," she told him.

The man studied her for a second before standing and walking over to a filing cabinet. The drawer opened with a click as he pulled out a file. "Yes, Miss Taylor," she watched as his eyes scanned over what was written. "Have a seat," he offered sitting back down at his desk plopping the file down.

Katherine took in the room as she sat in one of the fluffy brown leather chairs. The sun was just setting and the light was casting a warm glow on the room through the west facing windows. The furniture was a collection of antiques in beautiful carved mahogany. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he started his eyes flickering back down to her file; "I must say that I'm very impressed by your entrance exam. One of the highest scores I've seen."

"Arigatou gozaimasu ," Katherine responded politely. It became apparent that his man was the headmaster. He gave her a kind smile before continuing.

"It says here you were home tutored and self-taught," she nodded, "You are under the care of your uncle who is a freelance journalist. I would imagine you haven't really been to an actual school before."

"Just once when I was six."

He nodded. Katherine thought it looked pretty comical, like a bobble head on one of those figurines that one would put on their dashboard. "This," he said, "placing a sheet of paper in front of her, "is your class schedule. Here is a map of the school; this should help you find your classes tomorrow."

"If you still have trouble you can ask my daughter Yuuki. She is in the same year as you. Oh you'll like her she's about the best daughter a father could ask for," the told her gushing, "She's about this tall," he describes placing his hand about where her height would be, "and has brown hair and the pretties brown eyes. She has chubby cheeks too, but not as chubby as when she was little."

"Oh she was so precious when she was little. One time she tried to make spaghetti and meatballs, but she over cooked the noodles and burnt the sauce. The meatballs exploded permanently staining the ceiling—"

Katherine watched a little confused, '_What the hell? Okay so it's nice that he loves his daughter, but this is definitely weird. He's telling a complete stranger embarrassing stories from her childhood.' _"Umm… Excuse me," she said pulling the headmaster out of whatever story he was recalling, "aren't we getting a little off subject?"

The headmaster stopped and closed his mouth, "You're quite right I did get a little sidetracked there." He walked to a closet and pulled out something. The door was open blocking Katherine's view. When he closed the door she saw he was carrying a large white bag. "Here is your school uniform," he gave her the bag and she peered into it seeing a couple with shirts, black skirts, a black jacket, and long black socks.

"Arigatou. Umm… I was wondering if it would be okay to pick up a few things from town. I kind of came here on short notice and didn't have time before," Katherine requested. The headmaster regarded her peering over his glasses.

"I guess that would be acceptable, you can leave campus tomorrow after classes are over."

"Arigatou," she said bowing. Katherine took to the class schedule and map from the desk and slipped them into the bag. She closed the door behind her making her way back to her dorm. By this time the sun had long since set and Katherine was quite tired.

The cool January air nipped at her nose and she snuggled into her warm winter coat sniffling at bit. She walked pass the moon dorm one last time studying it. It was even more intimidating at night and she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her.

Katherine glanced around her into the woods, '_I could've sworn I saw something move over there.'_ She was staring at a tree; it seemed that a figure disappeared behind just a split second ago. She stared for a second longer before turning abruptly and heading back to her room.

"Hanabusa, what are you doing," Kain asked his cousin? The blonde vampire was leaning against a tree watching as a girl walked past the night dorms. She had golden brown hair and a fair complexion. He didn't seem to hear his cousin's approach.

"Hanabusa."

Aidou looked up, "Huh?"

"You were supposed to be back to class twenty minutes ago. Kuran told me to go find you," Kain reprimanded his cousin.

Aidou sighed pulling away from the tree, "Yeah Okay. I'm coming." Kain sighed before walking back to the classroom with Aidou on his tail. His cousin could be quite immature sometimes, well almost all the time. He hoped that whatever Aidou was planning, if he was planning something, didn't drag him down too.

**Author's Note:**

_**Okay, hi. Thank you for reading the prologue of IDDV. If you're wondering about where in the grand scheme of things this story takes place it is kind of during the manga. Except for the prologue and Chapter one (which I am writing now) they take place a day or two before chapter one of the manga. Katherine arrives at the school in January though and for my purposes the Cross academy school year will be like the typical american school except for the holidays, like labor day and what not. **_

_**If you would like to read the manga you can read it at **_

_**If there is anything you think that I could change, or do better at. Leave a review. I enjoy constructive criticism. **_

_**PLEASE REVIEW**_

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	2. (1) I Was Distracted by Your Face

**I Don't Date Vampires  
Chapter 1  
**_**"I Was Distracted by Your Face"**_

Zero Kiriyuu was bored out of his mind. He sat at one of the wooden desks his cheek resting in his palm his eyes staring at those around him. To anyone else it looked like a look of distain or a death glare, but it wasn't he was just bored.

"Hey I heard there was a new transfer student coming today," someone said.

"Really?"

"Yeah I heard she's a foreigner," a girl commented.

Zero rolled his eyes tuning out the typical gossip of the other students. His gaze focused on Yuuki sitting in front of him. She had her back turned to him and was furiously writing trying to finish her homework before the teacher showed up. Yori was sitting next to her quite as always reading a book.

"Hey Yuuki you met this transfer student right," Yori asked? Her amber eyes not leaving the page.

"Yeah," Yuuki answered continuing to scribble messily onto the paper, her shoulder length hair sliding forward and revealing her neck. Zero stared at her neck before shaking his head hoping to dispel any and all thoughts about the blood flowing through her arteries. '_I cannot be thinking about this right now. No! Stop it,"_ he argued with himself fighting an internal battle.

"What's she like?"

Yuuki paused in her writing thinking; the tip of the eraser of her mechanical pencil just brushing her bottom lip. "She's nice. She's a little different, but I'm guessing that just a cultural thing," she concluded, "I don't really know that much about her actually."

Yori nodded returning to her book. "I wonder where she is," she muttered absent mindedly to no one in particular.

'_I can't believe I'm late. Stupid jetlag. Stupid time change. Stupid me for not even setting my alarm clock. What the hell is wrong with me?'_ Katherine was running down the halls trying to find the classroom, mentally bashing herself for being such an idiot. She was late, simple as that. '_Damn it all,"_ she screamed internally cursing everything and everyone around her.

She rounded the corner seeing the door to the classroom as she slowed to a stop. Out of breath, her heart beating rapidly she tried composing herself waiting for her breath to even out. "Oh I hate running," she huffed bending over clutching her side where a pain was starting to form. She inhaled deeply holding her breath for a few seconds before standing up. Her elbow-length golden brown hair was in disarray and she quickly pulled it back into a ponytail.

When Katherine entered the classroom there were several pair of eyes staring at her. She had gotten there just before class started, but everyone was already there. The teacher was a thin tall man in his late thirties and he, like the rest of the class, was staring at her in question.

"Ohiyou Gozaimasu," Katherine bowed politely. The teacher looked at her curiously for a second not knowing who she was. Then it clicked in his mind. He remembers the Headmaster telling him about a new student this apparently was her.

"Class this is our new transfer student Katherine Taylor," he said matter-of-factly. Katherine fought the urge to cringe as everyone stared at her making her feel incredibly self-conscious. From an outside perspective however, she was relaxed and confident, there wasn't a hint of nervousness at all in her demeanor. Inside though was a different story. Katherine was fighting a minor panic attack at the moment. She didn't necessarily enjoy being on display, though she didn't cower away from being the center of attention, this was a bit much for her.

"Miss Taylor do you have anything you want to say?"

Katherine shook her head, "No, not really."

"Okay, well take a seat next to Kiriyuu," he told her pointing to Zero. It was the only open space left. In fact only Zero was sitting at a desk that would typically sit six people. Katherine figured it was the intimidating air he gave off that made people not want to sit there, '_like the_ _night class dormitory.'_ She wasn't sure why she compared the two like that, but it seemed to fit.

Zero glanced at Katherine as she sat down placing enough room between them to allow him to breathe but not so much that it would seem rude. She slipped a colorful knit backpack from her shoulder placing it next to her on the bench and took out a notebook and a mechanical pencil. He studied her for second taking in the golden hair and olive eyes as she stared ahead listening intently.

Katherine turned her head and regarded her seatmate. He was staring at her, "something wrong," she whispered? Zero blinked and shook his head before facing forward. She faced forward again actively taking notes.

Zero and Katherine didn't talk at all during class, mostly because Zero fell asleep about 15 minutes in as did Yuuki. Also Katherine was particularly interested in the lecture; Shakespeare was one of her favorite playwrights. The language and way he could make a person feel with just dialogue was impressive. Though she wasn't typically fond of Romeo and Juliet and didn't see it as a love story, like most did, she did still like to read it every once in a while on a whim.

"Remember that the test on Shakespeare is Friday and don't be fooled by my kind face and charming personality this test will be hard. Those of you who are just studying now I'll be able to tell," the teacher told the student concluding the class. Katherine stretched her arms above her head before sliding her notebook in her bag; it was the one empty notebook she was able to find in her stuff that morning.

"Hi," said two girls that had come up to where Katherine was sitting. One girl had strawberry-blonde hair and the other a dark brown almost black. They were both smiling at Katherine, '_probably heads of the school gossip_,' she thought.

Katherine looked at them wearily, "Hello."

The blonde's smile grew wider, "I'm Natsume Abe and this is Hiyoki Kimura," she introduced herself and the other girl.

"Katherine, but you probably knew that already," she replied then looked at the brunette, "Baby chick?"

The brunette laughed, "Everyone always says that."

"So what's your next class Katherine," Natsume asked turning the attention back to her?

Katherine looked down at her schedule, "World History," she read.

"That's my next class too," Hiyoki said enthusiastically, "I can show you the way if you'd like."

"That'd be great actually, "she responded standing up stretching her legs. She slung her bag over her shoulder and looked at Zero who was still fast asleep, "Hold on a sec," she told the girls walking over to the sleeping boy. His silver hair was mused slighting and covered his face. Zero's eyes were closed seeing as he was asleep, but Katherine new that opened they would be a pale liquid gray matching his hair.

"Umm… I wouldn't do that if I were you," Natsume warned fear seeping into her voice. Katherine looked back at her and disregarded her comment with a shrug. She placed her hand on Zero's shoulder and calmly shook him back and forth. The boy groaned but he didn't wake up, '_Stubborn huh?'_

Katherine had a moment of sudden inspiration and grabbed his textbook. The two girls watched in horror as she slammed it down on the desk with a loud smack. '_Oh she's going to die! Zero's definitely going to kill her,' _they both screamed internally, jumping at the sound of the book hitting the wood. They trembled slightly as Zero slowly sat up glaring at the person who dared to wake him. If only looks could kill Natsume and Hiyoki both knew that Katherine would be turned to ashes in an instant.

Zero stared at the girl standing above him, '_what was her name Kristen, Katie?_' She was staring him down with her doe-like olive green eyes the corners of her mouth quirking up into a half smile half smirk. "Class is over," she informed him simply, gesturing to the room around them. He glanced around seeing that she was right, in fact most of the students had already exited the classroom.

"Katherine," hissed Hiyoki trying to get the other girl away from the bad-tempered perfect. Natsume's brown eyes were darting to her and the door trying to convey solely with her pupils and irises that they needed to leave now, preferably before Zero ripped her head off, however Katherine just smiled pleasantly at them then refocused back on the silver haired boy.

"It was nice meeting you. Tell Yuuki I said hi," she told him then slipping away to join the two girls who were waiting for her. Zero watched her as she walked down the steps to the classroom door. His eyes scanned the classroom again and notice Yuuki drooling on her textbook.

"Osihii deus. Omarisu ga daisuki desu," Yuuki mumbled talking in her sleep. Zero stood over her and almost smiled when she let out a small snore. '_Even when dreaming she's still thinking of food,'_ he noted brushing a strand of her hair from her face. Zero pulled his hand back.

"Oy. Wake up," he nudged Yuuki in the ribs. She rolled over her face mashing into the desk. Yuuki was ten times more stubborn than he was. He pushed, probed, and nudged even flicking her ear a couple of times, but she was resilient. Zero sighed before resorting to the same method that Katherine had used to wake him up.

_**SLAM!**_

The teacher looked up startled at the loud noise that emanated from the back of the classroom. He noted that Zero had just scared Yuuki awake and she was now yelling at him for being a jerk. Katherine was just making her way down the stairs when he noticed her, "Miss Taylor." The girl in question turned around and made her way back to the teacher when he motioned for her.

"Yes Sensei?"

"Here is everything you've missed," he said handing her a binder full of papers, "This is all the information that will be on the Shakespeare test, but since you're new you can take a makeup on Monday. It's more of an overview you might want to get one of the students more personal notes, they tend to more detailed."

Katherine weighed the binder in her hands; guessing it could weigh as much as a small dog. "More detailed than this," she was incredulous studying the binder.

The teacher sighed, "I know it seems daunting."

She shook her head, "No it's okay. It's just so heavy; I feel like I could beat someone to death with it." The teacher didn't smile at her attempt at humor.

Katherine thanked him for the notes as she made her way back to where Hiyoki was waiting for her. Shouldering the binder under her arm, Katherine strolled out of the room with the girl. "Do you want to borrow my notes," Hiyoki offered as they ambled down the corridor?

"Oh that'd be great," Katherine thanked her.

"It's no trouble. I have them back in my room, but we can go get them after classes let out if you want. I can even help you study too, if you want it," she stated as if it was just a drifting thought.

"Oh I have to go get some things after classes end. I'll probably be gone for about two hours, but you can stop by my room and drop them off with Yuuki or Yori even," Katherine explained.

"Yori and Yuuki?"

Katherine nodded, "Yeah they're in the room across from mine. I can just stop by when I get back and pick it up."

"Gomien."

Katherine gaped confused, "What are you apologizing for?"

"Your room is across from Yuuki. As in Yuuki Kurosu, the headmaster's daughter," she clarified calmly.

"I know who she is."

"Of course you do, everyone does. It just… well Yuuki isn't a bad person, but—" Hiyoki tried explaining the hostility that most people had toward Yuuki Kurosu. She wasn't really doing a good job though, yet Katherine still figured out what she meant.

"The night class."

The other girl nodded solemnly. Katherine glanced at her, but didn't really feel like pressing the matter of the night class. She was sure that sooner or later she was going to find out why everyone was so obsessed with them. '_They do sound like a bunch of stuck up bastards though,'_ she concluded internally. Katherine though would be lying if she said she wasn't the least bit curious about them; she was, but she didn't really like lowering herself to that standard of 'CRAZY FANGIRL'.

The rest of the day continued as normal, or as normal as everything seemed to her. She had only just gotten their yesterday, remember? After classes let out Katherine made a stop by her dorm to change out of her atrocious uniform. It wasn't that it wasn't cute it was, but she had a certain detest for skirts and dresses and that is what made it atrocious.

When the door of her room shut and locked with click and a turn, Katherine quickly slipped out of her uniform. She took off the black jacket and skirt and hung them in the closet. Her red neck tie was placed on the dresser and the long black socks were traded in for warmer winter socks. Katherine kept on the white button down shirt, but added a pair of light blue skinnies. She threw a black knit sweater over the white shirt and refolded the collar. Grabbing her converse prior to shutting the closet door, she sat on the desk chair to tie the laces; then took out her ponytail and brushed out her hair.

Katherine had changed out of her uniform in about 30 seconds flat. She was now walking through the town that surrounded the school after hiking a quarter mile down the boarding school's driveway. The little shops and cobble stone streets reminded her of Rothenberg. She had been there about six months ago in the summer everything was vivid and green. This town was not much different from that, except that it was winter of course. _'I wouldn't think that Japan would have towns like this. It isn't really traditional Japanese,'_ she pondered scanning the area around her.

There was a little café on the corner and a bunch of little boutiques with way over prices clothes. She was standing in front of a Jewelry store window and she also noticed a shoe repair man store further down. Katherine had yet to see any office supply stores and decided to stop inside the café to ask one someone on the wait staff there.

A tiny bell rung as she stepped into the Café, it was a sweet sound that echo through the tiny room and alerted people to her presence. She looked around her taking in the booths and tables; it appeared to be an ice cream shop. Katherine was making a mental note that this place was here when a waitress walked past her, " Sumimasen ga doko ni office supply store desuka?"

The waitress stopped and regarded the girl asking the question. She looked her up and down thinking about the question, "Third street down take a right it's by the post office."

"Arigatou," Katherine thanked the waitress before stepping outside and following her instructions. Just like the waitress said there was the post office and to the left of it across the street was the office supply store. She picked up several notebooks; some reams of college ruled paper, two binders, and packages of mechanical pencils, pens, and highlighters. All the supplies she was carrying in two white shopping bags one in each hand, when she saw it.

Katherine came to an immediate stop her mouth opened in a 'o'. She almost didn't see it which would have been a damn shame, but there it was. Tucked between two apartment buildings was a store, the sign broken but Katherine could tell that it had once spelt out the two words 'Ongaku and Hon'. Even if Katherine hadn't paid attention at all when Lucian was teaching her Japanese, she knew those two words were Music and books.

She rejoiced internally when she saw a sign in the store window with the word, 'aiteimasu,' printed in beautiful red kanji. Okay maybe it wasn't exactly beautiful; it was the same sign that was hanging in the window of every other shop Katherine had passed, but to her it was a beautiful sign.

When Katherine walked in she was immediately accosted with music blaring through the speakers. There were shelves everywhere piled to the brim with CD's and a table with milk creates stacked on top and under full of records. The second floor was more of a loft with a wooden banister looking out to the front of the store. Up there were the bookshelves filled with books.

_(Operator, operator, dial her back. Operator put me through. Satellite gave up a ghost to soon.)_

A woman in her early twenties walked out of the back and stopped when she saw Katherine. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't know you were here. You want me to turn down the music," she asked politely.

Katherine shook her head, "No it's okay. I actually love this song."

The woman smiled, "Yeah it's one of my favorites too. You need help finding anything?"

Katherine shook her head, "No I was just going to look around." The woman nodded going back to what she had previously been doing.

Katherine browsed the shelves of the CD racks humming the lyrics of the song. "I loved her too long. Don't take her too," she sang quietly picking up a CD and reading the back.

_(Oh, how he crossed us on that fate, your path in my own satellite. What a mess a little time makes to us when time and space collide.)_

"Operator, operator, dial her back. Operator, operator, don't take her too," she put down the CD and picked up another one. Her eyes scanned over the title not finding it interesting putting it back another one catching her eye, "Modest Mouse." Katherine had already had one of their albums, 'Sad Sappy Sucker' and loved it. Lucian had given it to her on her birthday last year. '_Good news for people who love bad news,'_ she read then flipped it over looking at the songs.

Katherine wondered towards the back of the store picking up several albums here and there. There was a set of metal spiral stairs in the corner going upstairs. When she got up there were shelves of books and began scanning the titles. She picked up a collection of essays of Camus and added it to the stack in her hands.

Upstairs was very comfortable it reminded her of an old study. The mahogany bookshelves and intricate woodcarvings made everything seem more mysterious there was a deep red love seat with its back to the banister. It was a nice place to just sit and read all day. Katherine would love to come here and read all day.

"Wow you got a lot of stuff," the woman said going through the CD's and books that Katherine placed on the counter. The woman looked over the familiar bands of White Stripes, Beetles, Muse, Modest Mouse, and The Black Keys. She scanned them and typed a few keys on the register, "3050 yen."

Katherine handed her a debit card. Lucian had opened a bank account for her that he put and allowance in every two weeks. When she was younger she hardly ever used it, even now she didn't really use it much except for things that she need or her Hobbies. She took the bag from the woman and thanked her, exiting the store.

The streets were a great deal more crowded than when she had walked on them before. Katherine stopped and sat down on a wooden bench. Her olive eyes watched the people around her absent mindedly. They landed on the face of a little boy. He had jet black hair a green hat on his head falling over his eyes.

Katherine let out an involuntary shiver. Something about that boy didn't seem right. He was holding a red balloon, bobbing up and down. It seemed like he was lost, maybe looking for his mother, but Katherine didn't want to go help him. She watched studying him trying to figure out why she felt frightened all the sudden. He had starting running disappearing into the crowd. _'What is that? That thing that made that boy different,'_ she wasn't able to place her finger on it continuing to stare at the place where he had been standing.

She had decided it would be best to head back to the school picking up her bags. Someone knocked into her and she dropped one of her bags. CD's and books spilled out on to the cobblestone. Katherine sighed crouching down to pick them up making sure they weren't damaged.

"Here," someone said handing her some of the CD's.

Katherine took them from his hands, "Ariga—"She paused looking at his face. He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen and messy blonde hair. He looked like one of those Calvin Klein models. She was a lost at words, her brain seemed to lose all thinking capacity. _'Wow he's gorgeous,'_ Katherine concluded, and then she noticed his mouth moving, '_Oh shit is he saying something! I'm not even listening. This is bad. He's still talking pay attention! Okay, Katherine pull yourself together.'_

Aidou stared at the girl in front of him. It was obvious that she wasn't hearing a word he was saying. He recognized that look from his fan club when he talked to them. They'd give him that dead zombie expression and he knew they weren't hearing anything, however suddenly she seemed to snap too. "I'm sorry," the girl spoke calmly coming out of her trance, "I didn't hear a word you just said I was distracted by your face."

Her honesty surprised him. It was certainly something no girl has ever said to him before vampire or otherwise. The way she said it though was interesting like she was simply stating a fact, 'The sky is blue. The grass is green.' Aidou blinked, "I was saying that you should probably be more careful. Also you kind of looked a little piss when I knocked into—"

Katherine picked up the rest of her stuff slipping back into to the bag before standing. "I should be more careful? Isn't that a little hypocritical considering you're the one that knocked into me? You should watch were you're going," she retorted passive aggressively. Now normally she wouldn't react this way, but something about the combination of Jetlag, the massive amount of reading she had to do, and the way he was talking down to her just pissed her off.

Aidou put up his hands in surrender, "Okay, fine it's my fault." The girl was silent for a moment her doe-like olive eyes narrowed in thought, her luscious pink lips pressed together in a hard line. Aidou took this opportunity of silence for his eyes to scan over her face.

He didn't think her to be necessarily pretty, he had seen much prettier people than her, but she was decent to look at. Her olive eyes had this impression of innocence with just a touch of mischievousness to them. The only thing that could be considered pretty about her would be her golden brown hair that flowed down to her elbows in soft waves.

"Would you stop talking to me like that," Katherine requested annoyed.

Aidou quirked an eyebrow in question, "Like what?"

"Like your Emily Post."

Aidou opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted. "Aidou! Aidou," another blonde haired guy came running up to them, just as gorgeous as the one she was currently talking to. _'What is it with this town is everyone unbelievably pretty,'_ Katherine asked. Unlike the one she was currently talking to this guy had these deep clover green eyes and his blonde hair was neat and orderly.

The green eyed person seemed to have just noticed her, "Oh, who is this?"

"I was just leaving," she remarked jadedly to him. Katherine got the sudden urge to bolt from the two people standing before her. It was strange she never had this happen to her before, but her subconscious was screaming at her to leave. She figured boredom was the way to get away from them without offending them too terribly, except for that other guy, _'What did green eyes call him Aidou?'_, he could be offended for all she cared.

Ichijo watched as the girl turned on her heals and disappeared into the crowd. He made a puzzled expression before turning to Aidou, "So I'm guessing that you didn't catch him?"

Aidou shook his head, "No the stupid human girl got in the way. He ran the second he sensed me."

Ichijo sighed running his fingers through his hair, " Kaname-sama isn't going to be happy."

Katherine knocked on the door lightly. She was picking up the notes that Hiyoki was supposed to leave her. There was some shuffling behind the door before it opens revealing a girl. Yori-chan as Katherine remembered. She vaguely recalled seeing her sitting next to Yuuki when she got to class that morning.

"Hi Yori," Katherine greeted the other girl with a smile, "I was wondering if anyone dropped off notes for me?"

Yori regarded Katherine tiredly her amber eyes boring into her. "Hold on a minute," she closed the door than reappeared with a large black binder. Katherine took it from the girl's hands.

"Arigatou." Yori just nodded politely before closing the door. Katherine walked into her room and plopped the office supplies on the floor by the desk and the CD's and books on the bed. She placed the binder on the desk with other white one. The alarm clock that she forgot to set told her it was 5:30 p.m.

She threw herself on the bed face first with an aggravated sigh. _'I just want to go to sleep,'_ she complained to herself. Flipping over she stared at the ceiling feeling incredibly comfortable at the moment not wanting to move. Her eyes glanced at the clock again, "I should probably set that stupid thing."

Katherine sat up and grabbed the clock pressing the buttons until the alarm was set for 5:30 a.m. Then she placed it back on the tiny nightstand with the small lamp. She dumped the contents of the white shopping bag on to the bed sorting through the CD's.

Picking up the Modest Mouse album she turned and on her laptop placing the CD in the CD drive. A window popped up with different options and she clicked the 'open with Window's Media Player'. It took a couple second for it to load and she ripped the music on to her laptop as the playlist started to play.

_(Ice age, heat wave, can't complain. If the world's a large, why should I remain? Walked away to another plan. Going to find another place, maybe one I can stand. )_

Katherine picked up the books that she bought and arranged them on the shelves. She then placed the rest of the CD's on the desk so she could rip them later. She decided to start on her math homework, and took out one of the empty notebooks and rewrote her notes in it dubbing it as her math notes.

_(You don't know where and you don't know when. But you still got your words and you still got your friends. Walk along to another day. Work a little harder, work another way.)_

It only took her about 30 minutes to finish her math homework. She was now focused on the ionic bonds of chemicals in her science class. All she really had to do what read the chapter for this. Katherine paused in her reading listening to the current song.

_(Now the blow's been softened, since the air we breathe's our coffin. Well now the blow's been softened, since the ocean is our coffin. Often times you know our laughter is your coffin ever after.)_

She grabbed the CD and her eye scanned through the song list, "Satin in a coffin," she read to herself.

_(Well now the blows been softened, since we are our own damn coffins. Everybody's talkin about their short list. Everybody's talkin about death.)_

The song was completely morbid, but Katherine found that she liked it. Also there was some truth behind the words. '_Everyone will die eventually. No one lives forever.'_ It was a depressing truth nonetheless it was still true. The idea sobered her a little, as her thoughts went to her parents.

'_It's almost the ten year anniversary,'_ she mused to herself. In truth the anniversary was that Sunday. The anniversary of the last time she ever saw them. Katherine closed her eyes as she recalled the memory.

_**A five year old Katherine sat at a sturdy wooden table with a box of Crayola Crayons. She was doodling little flowers humming to herself. Her feet were swinging back and forth with her legs being too short to touch the floor. "Mommy! Mommy look it," she called holding up her latest artistic masterpiece.**_

_**Jessica Taylor stopped what she was doing and looked at her daughter's picture, "It's beautiful honey. But it's look not look it."**_

"_**Look," Katherine said, but it sounded more like Looke. Her mother smiled at her love in her eyes. "Where is mommy going," she asked her child like curiosity coming to the surface? **_

_**Jessica sighed coming closer to her daughter. Had Katherine been older she would have noticed the look of sadness that flickered past her mother's features. "Mommy and Daddy are going to work. We are going to leave you with Annie. You like Annie don't you?"**_

_**Annie was the nanny that often watched Katherine while her parents were at work. Katherine was quiet seeming to consider the question seriously then nodded, "I like Annie she got me a doll last week." Jessica smiled at her daughter.**_

"_**There's my little girl," Evan Taylor said coming into the kitchen and picking up little Katherine. Katherine giggled as he flipped her upside down. Her mother just watched the two with a disapproving expression shaking her head.**_

"_**Don't drop her on her head again," she joked, though her voice had a serious edge to it. Evan flipped the girl right-side up and stared at his wife in mock shock.**_

"_**I thought we weren't going to talk about that in front of her," he whispered covering the little girl's ears though he was only joking too. Katherine watched her parents, confusion forming on her face.**_

"_**Talk about what Daddy," she inquired tilting her head to the side?**_

"_**Daddy was just making a joke," her mother said taking her from her father's arms. She set Katherine down at the table again. **_

_**DING. DONG.**_

_**The doorbell rang, the musical chimes filling the room. "That'll be Annie," stated Evan matter-of-factly. Katherine's mother walked out of the kitchen to answer the door. While Evan crouched down to see was his daughter was doing. **_

_**Katherine looked at her father, "Do you want to see Daddy?" Her dad smiled and nodded. Katherine put down the green crayon she was using and slid the paper to him. "That's me," she pointed to a little stick figure with brown hair and green eyes, "and that's Mommy," her tiny finger traveled to a larger stick figure with brown hair and green eyes, "and that's you," she finished tapping a stick figure with blonde hair and brown eyes.**_

_**Evan studied the picture, "Who's that," his finger tapping the page were another stick figure was? This one was placed farther away from them and had black hair and gray eyes. Katherine glanced at where he was pointing and smiled.**_

"_**That's uncle Luke!"**_

_**Her father stared at her puzzled, "why would you draw him?"**_

"_**Because he's Mommy's and Daddy's best friend and even though he isn't here now I know that he is still my family. But since he's so far away I drew him over there," she explained like it should be obvious. Evan stared at the picture for a little longer than sighed.**_

"_**Hi Kat," Annie said coming into the kitchen. Her short red hair pulled up into a ponytail. Katherine looked up and smiled at the nanny.**_

"_**I want to build a snowman today," she told her plainly. Annie laughed then looked at the father for permission. Evan nodded saying it was okay. He left her in the kitchen with the nanny and took some bags from the closet putting them in the trunk of the car.**_

"_**Okay we can do that after lunch," Annie told her messing up the girl's hair.**_

"_**Katherine, honey come say goodbye," her mother called from the entry way. Little Katherine slipped from the chair and ran out into the living room. She ran up to her mother and jumped into her arms.**_

"_**Goodbye Mommy," she said before planting a kiss on her cheek.**_

"_**Don't I get one of those," her father asked coming back into the house? Katherine smiled at him making grabby motions with her hands. Evan took the small girl in his arms as she hugged him lovingly before kissing him on the cheek.**_

"_**There you go," she remarked smiling.**_

"_**Now be a good girl while were gone. Don't cause Annie any trouble," he told her kissing her forehead. Katherine nodded furiously before her father set her on the hardwood floor. **_

"_**Katherine," her mother said kneeling down to the young girl, "I want you to know that we both love you very much. You're a strong person and no matter whatever comes you will get through it." The girl stared at her mother confused at this. She had never said something like this before.**_

_**Jessica brushed a strand of her hair from her eyes, "We should be back by tonight. Be a good while we're gone and listen to Annie." She kissed her daughter on her nose causing the child to giggle. Then Katherine watched as her two parents shut the front door behind them; catching a fleeting glimpse of her mother's golden brown locks and her father's warm caramel eyes.**_

Katherine was pulled from her memories when a ringing started emanating from her computer. She moved the mouse and answered the skype call. "Hi Lucian."

Lucain smiled and greeted her, "Hey Kit. Happy first day! How was it?"

She sighed placing her hand under her chin. "It was okay I guess. You know how much I hate first days," she told him disinterested, "I'm pretty tired. Kind of want to stick my finger in an electrical socket, but I've got a lot of reading to do for my English class."

Lucian nodded, "Yeah but you can't skip them. What kind of reading?" Katherine picked up the two binders, "Good Lord, what the hell is that?"

"My notes. I don't think Shakespeare knew himself this well," she said setting them down.

"You could beat someone to death with those," he commented.

Katherine laughed, "That's what I said. But the teacher didn't find it so amusing. On a brighter note, I found this great used music and book store today."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah it was amazing. It's tucked between these two apartment buildings and the sign is broken. I don't think many people even know it's there. But I walked in and Satellite by The Kills was playing."

"I love that song."

"I know me too. There were CD's everywhere and there didn't looked like there was really any organized system. But I found some great stuff," She picked up the Modest Mouse album she was listening to," Two dollars and fifty cents. Also I found a collection of Essays from Camus in their original French, five bucks."

Lucian was highly impressed, "Wow. So your first day wasn't exactly a bust was it?"

Katherine shook her head, "No, it wasn't that bad. But a guy did bump into to me and make it seem like it was my fault," His eyebrows quirked up at that but he didn't interrupted her, "I kind of snapped at him though; I mean we were kinda both at fault, but he was talking to me like it was a huge inconvenience for him to stop and help me pick my stuff up."

"What did you say to him," Lucian asked curiously?

She kind of cracked a smile at that question. "I more or less called him Emily Post," Lucian laughed, his dimples coming out as his mouth spread into a smile. Katherine had grown up with that smile, but it took a couple years for her to see it. When she first lived with Lucian he hardly ever smiled and more often than not it was a front so the little girl didn't get sad. "So how was your day? Anything exciting happen," Katherine probed?

Lucian shrugged, "I've just been writing. One of the guys did get pants today though." Katherine laughed. "Well I should probably let you get back to your homework. Have you eaten yet," Lucian said like a concerned parent?

Katherine shook her head. "Well go eat," he ordered she was about to protest, "No buts, Kit. Get your ass up walk down to the dining hall and eat some food."

"I haven't really been hungry," Lucian gave her a look, the same one he used to give her when she disregarded what he said and she was in trouble. "Okay fine I'll go eat," she said holding up her hands in surrender.

"I'll call you tomorrow. And Kit it'll get easier," he told her then ended the call. Katherine was exactly sure what he was referring to. But she did exactly what he said and got up and went down to the dining hall. She had some beef stew and white dinner rolls with butter and Raspberry jelly (she ate about 10 of them) then went back to her room.

Katherine stayed up for another two hours and read the rest of the science chapter and got about one quarter of the way through the white binder before turning of the lights and going to sleep. The second her head hit that pillow she was out like a lite, but something in her subconscious was nagging her about that little boy with the red balloon.

**Author's Note:**

**Here's Chapter one. I tried to include more physical descriptions of people. Also I notice that they don't really tell you the names of the other classmates in the manga so I made some up. The "Baby Chick." comment was a play on words Hiyoki is very similar to Hiyoko which means baby chick. I only know that because I read it in a manga.**

**I'd like to say that I include some Japanese sentences in romaji to just remind you guys that technically they are speaking Japanese. Except for Kit and Lucian who are always speaking in English with each other. Here is a little cheat sheet of the Japanese I used.**

**Arigatou = Thank you**

**Gomien = Sorry**

**Oshiidesu= It is so good. (pertaining to food.)**

**Omarisu ga daisuki desu = I love this fried rice omelet.**

**aiteimasu = We are open**

**sumimasen ga doko ni Office supply store desuka= Excuse me where is a Office supply store. (I didn't know the word for Office Supply store so I just put it in English.)**

**Another thing is I would love a book/music store like that to be with in walking distance from my house. I'd practically live there. The songs that I used in this chapter were...**

**The Kill- ****Satellite**

**Modest Mouse- World's at Large**

**Modest Mouse - Satin in a Coffin**

**Another thing I would like to clarify is thoughts, flashbacks, song lyrics, and signs.**

_(Song Lyrics)_

'_Thoughts,_'

**_Flashbacks_**

'signs'

**So anyways if you love this story or if you hate review! Even just one word (like, hate, boring.) is it five seconds out of your day. Thought if you don't tell me why you like it or why you hate it I can't do anything to make it better. Constructive criticism welcome and encouraged.**

**_Please Review  
_\/**


	3. (2) The Night Class at Cross Academy

**I Don't Date Vampires  
Chapter 2  
**_**"The Night Class at Cross Academy"**_

'_I can't believe she had the audacity to call me Emily Post,'_ Aidou had never had anyone remotely speak to him like that. He was a Noble Vampire for God sakes. He tried to forget about the encounter when he and Ichijou had to inform Kaname-sama that they were unable to eradicate the level E vampire like they were supposed to. The conversation left a bitter taste in his mouth; that he, Aidou Hanabusa, had somehow been incompetent. And it was all because of that insolent human girl who got in the way.

Aidou let out an aggravated sigh beginning to retie his tie for what seemed like the tenth time that night. Having been distracted all last night during classes his thoughts consumed with her, he couldn't seem to focus on anything. He considered drawing her as he habitually did when he needed to vent, but decided that she wasn't worth his time. Aidou studied his appearance in the mirror straightening his tie finally getting it right, '_There perfect.'_

"Hanabusa are you ready to go," Kain asked checking on his cousin? He had noticed his strange behavior since yesterday and was praying that whatever was bothering him wouldn't cause his cousin to do anything stupid.

Aidou turned around and stared at his cousin. "I'm ready to go if you are," he answered nonchalantly with a wave of his hand. Kain examined his cousin, his amber eyes boring into him. He wasn't able to see anything wrong on the outside, so the problem has to be something internal. '_It's probably nothing. I'm sure that he is only annoyed that he didn't get that level E,'_ Kain told himself pushing the thought out of his mind best he could.

The gates of the moon dormitory opened promptly at sunset and it was because of that reason that the day class students were expected to be in their dorms by that time. Though this rule was clearly stated in the student handbook and the price for breaking it was suspension, many of the day class students, especially the girls, flouted this rule. Yuuki Kurosu ran pushing and shoving her way through the crowd of students to get to the front gates.

"Everyone please step back and return to your rooms," she ordered placing herself between the mob of day class students and the moon dormitory, "You're all out past curfew for the day students and that is grounds for suspension." Yuuki's threat had absolutely no effect on the students, if anything it just made things worse.

"Don't get so bossy just because you're a perfect!"

"You're just trying to keep them all to yourself!"

"Just because you're the Headmaster's daughter doesn't give you the right."

Yuuki protested, "That's not it at all. It is my job as a perfect to—"

The girl was knocked backwards abruptly cutting off whatever she was about to say. The crowd began to push towards the gates again with much more vigor than before. There was no way that she would be able to hold them back by herself, '_Damn it. WHERE THE HELL IS ZERO?!'_ It was days like this that Yuuki wished that he showed up on time.

Aidou strolled out into the courtyard waiting to greet his adoring fans. If anything it was the one thing that would take his mind off of that impudent girl. He vaguely recalled seeing a girl with golden brown hair a couple days ago when Kain had come to get him, but he didn't remember what her face looked like. '_That was undoubtedly her. Maybe she would be there with the rest of my fan base,'_ he shook that stupid thought out of his head. A girl like that wouldn't lower herself to something as trivial as being a fan girl. That alone sickened him. That he even remotely thought that she had standards.

"KYAAAAA!"

A scream from the day class girls erupted over the wall as the gates started to open. Aidou shook himself out of his thoughts putting on a smile. "Ohiyou, Ladies! Still as pretty as ever I see," he greeted with his usual playboy demeanor, "I could hear you all this morning, so rambunctious."

Yuuki stared at Aidou-senpai, '_Morning?'_

"Hanabusa," Kain said in warning.

"It's okay Akatsuki you're cool too," Aidou waved his cousin off. The blonde vampire stopped brusquely and shot one of the girls, "Bang!" He put down his hand which had been in the shape of a gun the index and middle fingers facing forward and the thumb acting as a trigger. The girl that had been shot fainted dramatically falling to the ground.

This action caused the girls to go into even more hysteria. They roughly pushed past Yuuki causing the girl to fall to the ground. "Shoot me Idol-sempai!"

"No shoot me!"

"Bang. Bang. Bang."

"Are you alright Yuuki," Kaname asked holding out his hand to help the girl stand? Yuuki stared at him her eyes fading off in memory. The imagine of white snow stained red with crimson blood and Kaname standing above her with his hand stretched out much like he was now appearing in her mind. She placed her hand in his and let him pull her up. "They're always so difficult to manage," he chuckled slightly.

Yuuki immediately separated herself from his grasp, "Yes, I'm just fine. Thank you for your help." She was hyperaware of a hoard of girls glaring daggers at her back. Kaname sighed running his fingers through his hair.

"You're always so formal with me. It makes me very sad."

She looked apologetic in an instant, "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, it just that you saved my life I'm indebted to you."

Kaname gave a sad smile ruffling the girl's hair, "Don't worry about it anymore, it's in the past."

Aidou's attention was suddenly diverted from his fan girls when Zero Kiriyuu grabbed Kaname's wrist. '_How dare he,'_ he glared at the silver haired boy. He wasn't the only one who found the act offensive, every one of the night class students stopped and glared. Ruka in fact looked about ready to rip him apart with her bare hands. "Class is starting, Kuran-sempai," Zero reminded the pureblood a hidden threat behind his words.

Kaname stared blankly at the perfect an amused smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, "Kowaii Mr. Perfect." Zero continued to glare menacingly as he watched him leave with the rest of the students until they were nothing but specks in the distance. Then he turned his glare on her his expression softening ever so slightly.

"You do realize you're completely obvious right?"

Yuuki glared at zero, "Shut up I know. It would never work between us though; a vampire and human could never work." She stared off into the distance sort of wistfully as she said this like she was watching something she wanted but could never have, which in a way she was.

"Listen up BRATS," yelled Zero turning his gaze on the day class students who remained, "Get the Hell back to YOUR DORMS!" This effectively sent the girls running, sprinting away putting as much distance as possible between them and Zero Kiriyuu. "Why do I have to deal with you all running around and screaming "KYA, KYA, KYA, KYA," every damn day?! Why?! You all give me a Fucking HEAD ACHE," he growled as they ran screaming.

Something occurred to Yuuki causing her to punch Zero directly in the back, "You were late again! How many times have I told you to be on time, yet you weren't Again?! Useless Jerk!" Zero hissed in pain and annoyance turning around and pushing Yuuki away from him.

"That hurts."

"Well it should, maybe it will remind you to be on time," she retorted sauntering back to the headmaster's office. Zero sighed running his fingers through his hair before following closely behind.

"The fact that our night class is testing these newly developed blood tablets has been acknowledged all over the world,"Kain stared blankly not needing to hear this speech again, "You are the pride not only of this school but of the whole vampire race." He let out a yawn as the teacher, an older noble, ambled on about how what they were doing here was honorable.

"It's not that big of a deal," Ruka muttered flipping through the pages of a book. She too had grown tired of this speech.

"We're just a group study for it," Ichijou added with a sigh staring out the window.

"He really pisses me off," Aidou mutter maliciously his pen digging into the paper as he drew. He scribbled sketching out Zero angrily. Though it wasn't just Zero that pissed him off and that angered him even more because, '_Damn it I'm not supposed to be obsessing over her!'_

Ruka glanced at Aidou as he muttered, "Zero Kiriyuu… who the hell does he think he is?! Grabbing Kaname-sama's wrist like that, a pureblood."

She wandered over to where the blonde was sitting scribbling furiously. Picking up the book and taking it from his hands her eyes scanning over the page. There Aidou had drawn a picture of Zero with the words idiot printed on his forehead, the detail he used when drawing almost made it seem like a real life picture. "Doing all this," she murmured continuing to stare, "it's like you're in love with him."

"Who would be," he said snatching the book from her hands? "If I could I would destroy him, the stupid perfect," the vampire muttered darkly. His cousin didn't look so convinced at his words and was about to point that fact out when her attention was diverted by something one of the other vampires said.

Shiki had been gazing vacantly at the ceiling his head lulled back on the bench. "But her blood did smell exceptionally good," he mumbled to himself his stoic expression not changing, "that girl, Yuuki Kurosu." Kaname paused in the book he had been reading in the process of turning mid-page. Ichijou noticed Pureblood's clenched jaw signifying that he was infuriated at what the younger vampire had said.

"Senri," he warned cautiously.

The auburn vampire sat up and stared at Ichijou. Rima had placed herself at the desk behind him sitting on the desk rather than the bench, "Here you need to feed." She threw two blood tablets to him and Shiki caught them in his mouth. His lips quirked up into a semblance of a smile in thanks before returning back to his deadpanned expression.

"You seem to have taken quite an interest in that girl, Kaname-sama," Ruka stated plainly to the pureblood having also noticed his sudden tensed posture. She hid the bitterness of her jealously well from her voice, but there was a part of her that just wanted to ask 'why her and not me?'

Kaname closed the book he was reading, it wasn't like he was really focused on the words anyways. He had reread the same sentence about six times none of it making much sense to him. "Yes, you're right," he replied gazing out the window, his face as unreadable as always.

"This is ridiculous," Zero grunted annoyed. He and Yuuki stood in the Headmaster's office giving him a nightly report before patrols. The man was wrapped in a shawl sipping a cup of Earl Grey like he was the bloody Queen of England, pissing Zero off even more. "How can you possibly expect the two of us to guard those blood-sucking leeches and deal with those screaming idiots at the same time," he demanded angrily slamming his hands on the sturdy mahogany desk?

Yuuki sighed watching the display, '_Not this again. We go through this almost every night.'_

The Headmaster stared down at his cup of tea, "I admit that it is difficult to deal with every single night, but thank you both for your hard work."

"Then find someone else to help me before this whole thing implodes in on its self," he reasoned, "She is worse that completely useless, can't even hold back the day class students." Zero pointed at Yuuki who was standing behind him when he said the last part. She was instantly indignant.

"Hey I'm not taking that shit! Especially from someone who is late half the time and absent the rest," she yelled back crossly at the silver hair boy. The Headmaster and Zero disregarded her comment like it was never even said in the first place.

The Headmaster took another sip of tea, "Unfortunately that's impossible. The role of the perfects is critical to the night class and day class coexisting peacefully; you two are the only ones I trust." Zero stared at him incredulously, "Besides the job is a lot of long hours, sleepless night, and no respect; no one else would take it. And I know that my adorable daughter and loving son would never disappoint."

The last comment the Headmaster made angered Zero and he slammed his fist down on the desk break the beautiful wood in half, "I know you raised me, but I don't recall ever giving you permission to referrer to me as your son," he growled. The Headmaster set down his tea and stared disinterested at the damage running his hand along the break.

"You always pay too much attention to the details, Kiriyuu. It's such a pain."

The silver haired boy sighed, feeling like he was fighting a losing battle. "Hey Yuuki," he said getting the girl's attention, "You're more his kid than I am; don't you have anything to say?"

She thought about it reasonably considering all sides of the argument. Yes the job was difficult, and yes, the day class students were hard to deal with, but it was necessary for them to do it because no one else would. "The night class seems to be getting along pretty well with the other students," she said considering, "I'm just happy to help." Zero looked at her blankly, '_Well you're hopeless.'_

"Yuuki you're such a good girl I'm so proud of you," the Headmaster said wiping away at a tear, " You are the only one who understands my pacifist idealism. That one day we will break through the years of hatred and prejudiced that lie between humans and vampires. I believe that if the youth of both species can grow together with open hearts and inquiring minds then it will build bridges over the dark past so humans and vampires can live in harmony with each other."

"I'm going on patrol Yuuki," Zero informed her having had enough of watching the man prance around the room, "this basket case is all yours." '_And to think, I was pretty much raised by that idiot. Unbelievable,'_ he said to himself walking out the door. Yuuki stared at where Zero had left before turning back around to face the Headmaster.

"It's a shame, but I understand why Kiriyuu feels the way he does," he sighed staring at the door, "Even in the vampire community there are still evil creatures that prey upon the weak and defenseless. That is why the secret of the night class must never get out."

Yuuki slammed her hand on the desk, "Kaname would never do that and there are many kind and honest vampires just like him! They're pacifists." The girl's weight broke the desk even more, but the Headmaster figured that he was already going to have to replace it anyways. He stared at her curiously as she moved to the window opening it. "That's why it's going to be okay. Just sit back and leave it to us perfects," she told him simply before jumping from the window.

"Kurosu! Kurosu," the teacher called trying to wake the girl up! Yuuki was sleeping soundly on her opened notebook completely oblivious to the world. Yori leaned toward the girl's ear and whispered something not audible to anyone else. Katherine was seated behind them next to Zero who was also blissfully unaware of the world around him and glanced that the boy a little envious. She still had major jetlag and just wanted to fall over; unfortunately she had this incredibly annoying burning desire to stay awake even when she was dead tired. It was something that she always had being one of those kids who only pretended to take naps during the day instead of actually taking them.

"Itadakimasu," Yuuki called abruptly standing up from her seat, still half asleep. She held her pencil like a fork ready to devour the imaginary food. The class broke out into a fit of laughter, though Yori and Katherine tried to hide it behind their palms. The teacher looked disinterestedly at the girl who disturbed his lecture.

"You and Kiriyuu napping again," he sighed pointing to the boy next to Katherine? Yuuki turned around seeing that he too was in fact sleeping. "You perfects sure are busy huh," he questioned the girl?

Yuuki smiled apologetically, "Yes, I guess we are. Sorry to make you worry." This annoyed the teacher even more, that the girl could be so carefree over something like this.

"The both of you get detention," he said before returning back to the front of the class and continuing with the class.

"Ugh," Yuuki sighed aggravated, "I hate getting detention."

Yori quietly placed her books into her bag listening to her best friend complain. "It's your own fault for staying up all night and sleeping during the day," she said clipping it closed, "that's something only a vampire would do."

Yuuki shot up staring at her friend bewildered. "You don't actually believe in vampires do you," she asked cautiously. Yori turned and gave Yuuki a look that clearly said, 'are you fucking kidding me?'

"Of course not, I was only joking," she answered standing.

"Wait Yori," Yuuki said grabbing the girl's jacket, "Will you come to detention with me. I hate having to do it alone with that jerk," she pointed to Zero who was now awake and putting his books away.

"No."

"Please Yori," she begged.

The other girl shook her head, "I thought you two were good friends."

Yuuki made a face seeming to be disgusted by that sentence, "As if! Zero is flakey, bad-tempered, and so gloomy that it would even send SpongeBob into a deep depression."

"Yuuki," the boy growled, "I can hear you."

She turned around sticking her tongue out at him, "I'm saying this because I know you can hear me." Katherine chuckled at the two finding the whole thing rather amusing and Yori smiled not being able to resist fanning the fire.

"And have you noticed the freaky way he's always so serious," she added to Yuuki's speech?

Katherine place her hand on her cheek considering something, "Now that I think about it you two are perfect for each other," she muttered teasingly. Yuuki turned around glowered at the girl before her expression changed into a hopeful one.

"Katherine will you come to detention with me," she pleaded her puppy dog eyes hitting the girl at full force? She watched as the girl blinked her olive eyes thinking it over.

"I'm sorry Yuuki," she told the girl shooting down her last hope, "I need to go back to my room and take a nap before catching up on my reading and studying for the makeup test on Monday."

"Jetlag still bothering you," Yori inquired?

Katherine nodded her eyes blinking tiredly and letting out a yawn. "Yeah, I feel like I'm about to fall over. The funny thing about it is no matter how many times it happens it doesn't get any easier."

"Hey I have an idea," Yuuki told the two girls enthusiastically leaping from her seat, "How about you two come over to the Headmaster's house tomorrow night and we can have a study night? We can catch Katherine up on everything and help her for the test."

Katherine shrugged, "Okay, sure I don't have anything planned then." Yuuki stared at Yori as the girl decided.

"I guess I'll go too, you wouldn't be able to help her much on your own," she sighed at her friend, "no offense."

"Then it's settled you two come over anytime on Saturday, I'll tell the Headmaster to set extra places at the table that night," she smiled at the two clasping her hands together. The two girls nodded before saying goodbye and exiting the classroom leaving Yuuki in the room by herself. Zero had already left when the three of them were talking skipping detention.

"You know if you keep skipping detention like that you're going to get into even more trouble," Yuuki lectured Zero as the two patrolled the school grounds. It was a warmer night, but quite too they hadn't had any trouble from the day class or the night class; everything was completely at ease. The boy rolled his eyes at the girls incessant reprimanding, she had been lecturing him for about a half hour and it was getting old.

"So how's your hero doing tonight," he changed the subject when he noticed Yuuki gazing into the window where Kaname Kuran was seated reading a book? Yuuki stuttered blushing.

"It's not like that! I was just looking at Kaname-sempai," she defended. He stared at her blankly clearly not believing a word she was saying. "It's nice out tonight. All the night class students are being well behaved," Yuuki said running to the railing looking over the forest, "There hasn't been any wanders from the day class either, it's almost like we're not even needed at all."

Zero glowered at her, "Do you really believe that," he asked bitterly, "As if the day class and the night class could really get along that well? "

"I do," she answered him plainly. "I think it would be nice if vampires and humans could live among each other peacefully. It is my one wish," she was confident in her answer.

"I know the Headmaster believes that they are pacifist, but I don't believe it. There is too much conflict there for them to completely put it behind them," Zero said, "You said it once yourself, they only look like humans so they can hunt us down more efficiently. That's why I'm not going to let my guard down around those parasites," he told her then leaving turning right around the corner. Yuuki stared, '_I wish that just once he would tell me what he's thinking. Why does he have to hold it all in all the time?'_ In truth Zero had always been like that from the very first day that the Headmaster had brought him home covered in the blood of his slaughtered family. Even as the years went on he hasn't really opened up and he still keeps walls built up around his heart as to not get hurt again.

Yuuki often wished that he would be more open with her, that maybe they would be able to talk about things. Zero never talks though, maybe on the outside they may seem like close friends in reality she doesn't even know anything about him. Not even basic things like his favorite food or movie, nothing. She thought about this moving on to another location making a mental note to find out more about him.

"Good grief," she muttered stopping at another veranda and seeing two girls wearing a day class uniform. '_Why can't they just stay in their rooms for one night,'_Yuuki groaned to herself? She jumped over the railing using a tree branch to slow her decent to the ground. Yuuki landed gracefully in a crouched position before standing up, "Being on school grounds after night fall is strictly prohibited. Give me your names and class," she ordered straightening her arm band.

The girls stared up at her fearfully. They each had light brown hair and brown eyes though ones hair was longer than the other's and the other one had a light pattern of freckles across her nose. "We just came to take pictures of the night class," the brown-long haired girl informed Yuuki regaining her composure first, "what the hell is your problem?"

The other girl, the one with the freckles, tried to stand hissing in pain. Her friend grabbed and supported her weight. "Are you hurt," Yuuki asked concern and fear seeping into her voice, "both of you need to leave now it's not safe. Blood is really bad, go now both of you," she said trying to push the confused girls away from the school. A sudden breeze blew past the three of them and Yuuki was quick to pull the Artemis rod from her thigh. "Who's there," she demanded swing the rod behind her.

There was a spark of electricity as the rod came in contact with Kain's hand. "Kowaii," the strawberry blonde commented, "Though I would expect nothing less from the Headmaster's daughter." Aidou stood behind him lazily shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "We smelt blood and came to investigate," Kain said matter-of-factly examining his hand.

"Akatsuki Kain and Hanabusa Aidou from the night class," freckles gasped in surprise? Yuuki wanted to roll her eyes at the girl's naivety only caring that her Idol was standing in front of her and not that she was the only thing standing in between him and her getting eaten.

"Yes, you really are cruel Yuuki," Aidou said stepping closer to the brunette sliding his hand down the Artemis rod, "pulling a weapon on us when we only came to investigate. In fact we came here specifically to see you."

Yuuki's grip on the rod tightens defensively, "Aidou, I swear if you lay a hand on them."

The blonde paused tilting his head curiously; he closed his eyes for a second inhaling deeply, "It smells delicious," he sighed. When he reopened them they were no long the pretty blue that made girls speechless. No instead they were a cold bone-chilling blood red that turned Yuuki's veins into ice.

"Oh did you hear that," one of the girls asked the other, "he said we smell delicious."

"I don't really get it," the other replied with a squeal, "but it's a dream come true." Yuuki wanted to turn around and scream at the two girls. '_What idiots! Run now why you still have the chance,'_ she tried screaming at them telepathically.

"Did you fall," he questioned his hand resting above hers? '_Oh shit, the tree. Why was I so stupid to jump from that tree,'_ Yuuki berated herself internally. "The blood we were talking about is your own, Yuuki-chan," Aidou informed her prying her hand from the weapon. The girl stared numbly at her hand that had a small gash that was bleeding steadily. "You really are tempting me," his voice coming out more as an animalistic growl than his normal soothing voice as he leaned towards it.

Yuuki immediately used her strength to try and pull away from him, but Aidou held her wrist firmly not allowing her to budge. '_I can't pull away from him. He's too strong,'_ she wanted to cry this was too much like that vampire in the woods, whole situation giving her horrible flashbacks. "Aidou don't," she said fully knowing that it would do nothing to stop him.

The blonde smiled a mere centimeter from her palm; he opened his mouth his fangs protruding from his upper lip. The day class students that had been blissfully unaware of the danger they were in were now both horribly aware of it. "A fang," the long haired brunette cried? They watched in horror as their beloved school Idol sunk his fangs into Yuuki's palm drinking her delicious blood. "Aidou stop it," she begged trying to weasel herself out of his grasp.

Internally Aidou knew that what he was doing would get him into so much trouble. He also knew that he should probably stop as to not drag Kain into his mess too. His cousin was only there because of him; he asked him to come with him and Kain could have easily said no. But Yuuki-chan's blood was so delicious, that he put all these thoughts and warnings towards the back of his mind. It had been so long since he had tasted human blood and Yuuki Kurosu was some of the best he's ever tasted; sweet, but not too sweet as if eating a plumb juicy pineapple when it's reached its peak of ripeness.

Kain stood awkwardly to the side looking away from the scene. He knew that he should stop his cousin, but with how he has been acting recently wasn't sure that was such a good idea. As kids, Kain was the more responsible one though Aidou was responsible too, but in a different way. He knew that his cousin could often times be unstable and self-destructive when upset, and though he wouldn't mean to would probably do more damaged to the girl than intended.

Aidou reluctantly tore himself from the girl's palm blood staining his lips. The day class girls fainted when his tongue darted out and licked his bottom lip. "Can I take it from your neck," he asked though no matter what she said he wasn't going to actually do it? He brushed her hair away revealing her smooth olive skin. Yuuki was almost hyperventilating not knowing what to do to get out of this situation.

In the next moments things seemed to happen very quickly. First Kain turned around having had enough of this foolishness from his cousin, "Hanabusa—" Though he never finished what he was saying when a cocking of a gun and the barrel pressed firmly to Aidou's temple cut him off. Kain stared at Zero Kiriyuu as he had the bloody rose aim directly at his cousin's head. The boy looked almost murderous as he snarled.

"Get enough to drink? You and I both know that drinking blood on school grounds is strictly prohibited," he glowered at Aidou, "But by getting drunk of the scent of blood you've revealed your true self, vampire."

Aidou glanced at Zero his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. The boy's previous indiscretion still fresh in his mind he smirked licking his lips, "It was just a taste." He apparently pushed him too far though when a loud bang erupted by his ear. Aidou winced closing his eyes. After a couple of seconds his eyes still firmly closed and a persistent ringing in his ears he thought, '_Am I dead? Is this what being dead is like? I hope not I'm going to go mad with that incessant ringing.'_

"You idiot, why did you shoot," Yuuki yelled using the distraction to break away from Aidou? At feeling her presence leave his side the blonde vampire opened his eyes, now their normal blue color, and saw that in fact he wasn't dead. Instead of actually shooting him in the head, which was what Zero wanted so badly to do at that moment, he shot past him into a tree. Aidou silently thanking the universe for saving his life and not letting the silver hair perfect kill him.

"Please lower your bloody rose, Kiriyuu," Aidou tensed at the sound of Kaname's voice. He knew instantly that he was going to be in so much trouble as the pureblood walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder griping it tight enough to leave bruises. "You should be more careful Aidou, it's made to kill creatures like us," he said as Zero tucked the gun back into its holster, "Well then I'll take care of these two fools. However the Headmaster will need a full report on this incident and I'll have those two girls memories altered. Is that okay Kiriyuu?"

The boy glowered at the pureblood, "Just get them out of my sight, Kuran."

"Kain," Kaname called getting the taller vampire's attention, "Why did you stop Aidou, you're in just as much fault as he is?" The other vampire didn't answer not being able to find anything that would make this situation better. "I'm sorry about this Yuuki. I hope it didn't bring back any bad memories for you," he said his expression softening as he stared at the younger girl.

Yuuki blushed lightly, "No it's okay. He barely did anything." She hid her hand that Aidou had bitten behind her back nervously. Zero sighed getting quite annoyed at being there the smell of blood starting to get to him, he grabbed Yuuki's wrist pulling her away from the night class students. "Zero? Wait. What are you doing," she demanded as he dragged her away?

When Kaname turned around both Aidou and Kain flinched visibly. The look on the pureblood's face clearly said once they got back to the dorm they were both getting their asses kicked. The three of them walked back to the dorm in complete silence, Seiren appeared before they left and took care of the two day class students receiving orders to take them to the Headmaster's office once she was done altering their memories. Aidou didn't say a word the entire trek through the woods feeling extremely remorseful for his behavior, but he was more remorseful that he got caught.

The front door slammed audibly as they entered the extravagant foyer of the moon dorm. "Sit down both of you," Kaname ordered through a clenched jaw. The two vampires did what he said without question placing themselves on the couch completely tense. "I shouldn't have to remind you two about the rules of this academy. Yet I find myself having to do it anyways, can either of you tell me why that is," neither Kain nor Aidou answered the pureblood? He sighed, "You know what I don't even want to know what stupid choices you two made that led to this disaster."

"Aidou," the blonde looked up at his name, "I would think that you of all people wouldn't want to anger me so quickly, after your slipup two days ago."

"I apologize, Kaname-sama," Aidou said bowing his head in shame.

"Don't apologize to me Aidou unless you mean it," he retorted. Kaname took a deep breath hoping to calm some of his anger. Now why many people would actually seem angry on the outside the Pureblood was not, however that made his anger even more frightening because Kain and Aidou were unable to tell the extent of it. They watched as Kaname was seated calmly in the couch across from them his eyes staring them down, trying to figure out what to do about this situation. "I'm putting the both of you on suspension, 10 days. No classes, you will not leave the dormitory for any reason. Am I understood," he stopped waiting for them to answer?

"Yes, Kaname-sama," the both answered respectfully.

"After that I'll have you both on close observation. You will not go anywhere without me knowing or do anything without me knowing. After time, based on good behavior, I'll reassess and give you more of your freedoms back," he told them then standing up and walking out the door.

Both of them were quiet not saying a word for a few minutes. Then Aidou got up and went to the kitchen, Kain followed him without a word. The blonde vampire opened the cupboard and took out a clear crystal champagne flute and filled it with water. He dropped two blood tablets with a plop and they fizzled as they sunk to the bottom of the flute.

"Hanabusa," Kain said as he watched his cousin sip the red liquid, "are we going to talk about this?"

"Talk about what?"

"What has been bothering you the last two days? Ever since you came back with Ichijou you've been distant and distracted," His cousin asked concerned placing himself on one of the counter stools.

Aidou looked at him briefly, "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing if it's effecting you like this," Kain reasoned.

Aidou set the glass down on the table roughly. "Look I don't really want to be talking about this right now. It's been a long night, I just want to go to sleep and wait until this all blows over," he spat out turning around. Aidou expression softens slightly, "Though I am sorry you got dragged into this mess Akatsuki. Just leave me alone for a few days, please."

Kain watched at his cousin left the kitchen. He heard a distinct slam of their bedroom door before staring at the granite countertop. If Aidou didn't want to talk about it he wasn't going to force him. That would only make matters worse and whatever it was bothering his cousin was something that he had to work out on his own.

"Are you okay, Yuuki?"

The girl in question looked up at the mention of her name. "Oh yeah I'm find," she answered waving her hand. Katherine didn't look so convinced and neither did Yori. Though neither girl did question her blatant lie they were both concerned for their friend's wellbeing. They were sitting in the living room around the Kotatsu their notes binders and papers strewn all over the table top.

"So do you think you got it, Katherine," Yori quizzed the girl on the information they've been going over the last two hours?

"I think so," she answered resting her chin in her palm, "Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. Of those 37 plays there are 17 comedies, 10 tragedies, and 10 historical plays. He wrote all his sonnets in iambic pentameter, except for the 145 sonnet which he wrote in tetrameter."

"Okay yeah, I think you got it," Yori said closing her binder. She sighed closing her amber eyes briefly. Katherine laid her head on the table with a sigh relishing in the warmth of the Kotatsu. Yuuki was reading over the notes.

"I don't understand why I've never sat under a Kotatsu before," Katherine commented, "It so warm. I feel like I could just sleep here forever." Yuuki laughed as the girl's peaceful expression, she looked to be already half asleep her eye lids drooping.

"You don't look too far from that," she observed. Katherine only nodded her head in response not lifting it from the table. "So what do you guys want to do now," she questioned closing her binder?

"Whatever, I just don't want to move," Katherine mumbled her words barely being able to be distinguished.

Yori shrugged, "Same here."

"We could watch a movie," Yuuki suggested getting up and walking to the cabinet where the TV was kept. "What do you guys want to watch?"

"I don't really care," Yori said then staring at Katherine, "Katherine?" The girl shook her head mumbling something. Yuuki took that as she didn't care either and picked out a movie. The three girls watched the film all the way through, though Katherine listened more than she actually watched. Both she and Yori stayed at the Headmaster's house that night and all three girls ended up falling asleep under the Kotatsu.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey guys thank you for reading the second chapter of IDDV. I'm sorry if your disappointed there wasn't much Katherine in this chapter, but I evened it out with Aidou though. Katherine is still unaware of the supernatural world so I couldn't put very much of her in this chapter, but she will be prominent in the next one.**

**Also I do realize that there is going to be some possible punctuation error and maybe a few spelling errors. But once I upload I'm not changing anything, mostly because I'm lazy. So if you tell me there's errors I'm not going to go back and change them.**

** I also enjoyed writing the scene where Kaname gives Aidou and Kain their punishment. I kind of wish that they included that in the manga or the anime, but they didn't. I tried to make Kaname more rational first before resorting to physical violence. And it's also kind of interesting how Aidou is obsessing over Katherine, while she hasn't really given him a second thought.**

**If you like this story please review. Even if you don't and you hate, tell me why. I can't do anything to make it better if you don't give me your opinions.**

**_Please Review  
_\/**


	4. (3) CWADP

**I Don't Date Vampires  
Chapter 3  
**_**"Chilly Winter Afternoons and Dorothy Parker"**_

The days had been passing by quickly for Katherine; it had been about two weeks since she started attending the prestigious Cross Academy though it only really felt like three days to her. She had hit her stride within the first three days. It started when the girl had realized that when the night class and the day class made their switch was the best time to sneak off of campus. No one was watching, the perfects being too preoccupied with the night class and those day class fan girls that they didn't even notice when someone just walked out the front gates.

And where did Katherine go? Well the answer is pretty simple, to the bookstore of course. It was the one place that she felt completely at ease, surrounded by her three favorite things music, books, and coffee. She snuck off there almost every day. The owner, Ayame, always had coffee there and the two bonded quickly over books and music. It turned out that she went away to New York to go to college but came back to Japan to run her parent's store when her father died.

Katherine shared stories about her travels with her uncle. Telling Ayame about the different foods, cultures, and people she's run across. While she told stories about New York and crazy college parties. Katherine would often help her do inventory, staying there long into the night, but always managing to get back to campus before classes in the morning. This routine is what made her happy.

It was now one of those times that she snuck out of the school. However it was Saturday today and she didn't have classes until Monday, so Katherine got a head start. The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon as the girl ran from tree to tree, the experience made her think of some sort of espionage mission which caused her to have the Mission Impossible theme running though her mind. The Night class was still in classes and had yet to return to the dorm. So that meant the she had to dodge the perfects. It wasn't that difficult though, Yuuki and Zero were very predictable, actually any of the day class students could do it if only they had the patience for it.

Katherine stopped behind a tree her back pressed firmly to the trunk; the orange glow of the sunrise shining on her hair caused it to look redder than golden brown. She counted quietly in her head having to get the timing just right, '_One, Two, Three.'_ Yuuki ambled between the trees, though where she was standing couldn't see Katherine hiding. She looked around for a few seconds seeing no one there before moving onto somewhere else.

As soon as Yuuki had disappeared and was out of hearing distance Katherine was on the move again. She moved silently dressed in her black leather jacket and a black pair of skinnies she blended in easily with the abundant shadows casted by the trees. Katherine slowed to a stop seeing the boundary wall of the school. It was about 12 feet tall and was built out of old gray stones that seemed older to Katherine that the school itself. There growing next to the wall was a large oak tree. Its branches spreading up and over the wall it served as the perfect ladder.

Katherine jumped gripping one of the lower branches and climbed up easily. Then she crawled on one of the branches, it being about as thick as she was, and lowered herself onto the wall. The wall itself was two feet wide and she could easily balance as she walked down to the bus stop. There the rain cover allowed for her to climb down safely without breaking anything.

Landing on the ground it didn't take Katherine long to get to the book store. About 30 minutes or so she was running up the concrete steps. The store opened every day at 7:30 a.m. and Ayame had just put out the open sign seconds before Katherine showed up. The bell ringed as she entered the store. It was a chilly morning and the warm heated air greeting her like a welcoming hug, wrapping her up in a warm embrace.

"Hey, Kit," Ayame said coming to the room carrying a large black milk create filled to the brim with CD's, "I have doughnuts back there if you want any and here's a box for you to start on." She set the milk create on the counter. "I'm sorry I can't pay you for doing this," she remarked apologetically.

"Oh it's perfectly okay," Katherine waved it off, "You let me get first pick of everything, that's payment enough. Also you bring me coffee and doughnuts and we both know I'm susceptible to that." Ayame smiled at the girl.

"How's school going," she asked sorting through another box of CD's?

"It's good; though I miss the freedom of being able to go where I want when I want to. On the other hand I also like being in one place. It gets tiring constantly moving and it's nice to relax," Katherine answered sorting through her box.

"I bet it would be," Ayame commented. Both the girls talked about this and that as they sorted through the CD's and shelved them together. Katherine enjoyed it, Ayame was kind of like a big sister and she had never had one of those before.

"Aidou," Ichijou called catching the blonde vampire before he went to sleep, "I need you to get me something."

The blue-eyed vampire gave Ichijou a look that clearly said, 'get it yourself and piss off' though the other vampire ignored it. "What is it Takuma," he asked irritated? Aidou was tired and more than anything he just wanted to go to sleep. It had been a long ten days, probably the longest ten days he had ever experienced. And now that his suspension was done he constantly has Seiren following him everywhere. She never let him out of her sight and neither did this cousin. The constant presence of both of them and not being able to be alone was making him very irritable.

"I have to get this book. I was going to go myself but something came up, family stuff you know," Ichijou explained. He knew that Aidou wasn't angry at him, but just angry in general. "Besides I thought that this being your first Saturday not on suspension you would want to get away from the dorm," he leaned in a bit closer so only Aidou could hear, "and with no one knowing that you left you wouldn't have Seiren or Akatsuki on your back."

Aidou stared at Ichijou thinking it over before conceding. "Okay so what kind of book is it," he sighed?

"Just a book," he said handing Aidou a piece of paper with the words 'One Republic by Plato'. "There is this little book store down on block 8, building 7," Ichijou told him the address, "Arigatou Aidou." He took off down the hall leaving the other vampire standing in the foyer.

Aidou wandered down the streets through the town, looking for this book store. It was a cloudy day and the sun was barely shining, '_Thank God,'_ praised the vampire. Though with no sun it made everything seem gloomier than it was, more haunting. He just wanted to get this book, get back to campus and sleep.

It was chiller than normal January afternoons there. Typically they wouldn't even get snow except on rare occasions and the leaves stayed on the trees for the most part in reds, oranges, and yellows, if not green. Aidou could see his breath as he breathed. The little whiffs of swirling fog that came out every time he opened his mouth were almost hypnotizing. He stopped finally seeing the building, '_this is a book store_.'

It looked nothing like he was picturing in his mind, not that he was picturing anything though. He just thought it would seem like every other book store that he'd been to, a nicely painted sign, people walking in and out with purchases, and maybe annoying kids running around with their mothers. But this store seemed to be abandoned from the outside, the sign barely distinguishable, no one walking in and out, and definitely no annoying kids running around.

Aidou walked up the steps and opened the door a tiny bell announcing his arrival. He looked around curiously at all the shelves and tables stacked with CD's and records. It reminded him of that American Reality TV show, Hoarders. There was music playing though the speakers softly, but it was still loud compared to other places he'd been. He was unfamiliar with these lyrics, the seemed to be in German or what not.

_(99 Luftballons. Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont. Hielt man fur Ufos aus dem All. Darum schickte ein Gerneral 'ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher. Alarm zu geben, wenn es so war. Dabei war'n da am Horizont Nur 99 Luftballoons.)_

Aidou watched as a young blonde woman in her early twenty's walked out of a back room. She was wearing a heavier brown winter coat and putting on some gloves. The woman looked up to the loft area that, Aidou had just noticed. "Kit," she called, "Watched the store, okay. I'm going to go out and get some lunch you want anything?"

Aidou observed as a figure moved on the deep red loveseat, "Strawberry Milkshake and Some fries." He immediately recognized the voice. It was her, that girl that somehow unnerved him with just a few words. "But you do realize that I don't work here, right," the person said loud enough for the blonde woman to hear?

"You do realize this isn't a Library don't you," she retorted?

"Well played," The woman shook her head at the girl though she couldn't see. Then turned around and left the store without casting so much as a glance at Aidou. The blonde was unsure of what to do. It seemed that that girl was the only other person in the store besides him.

Aidou moved toward the back of the store seeing a set of metal spiral stairs. He walked up them being met with the sight of her being curled up on the loveseat. She had her nose buried in a book, no surprise, and was intensely reading. Too engrossed in what she was reading her eyes never left the page and it seemed to Aidou that the girl was completely unaware of his presence.

Katherine felt like someone was staring at her. Her eyes glanced up from the book and saw him standing there. The same messy blonde hair, same pricing blue eyes that she had seen a two weeks ago. He was dressed similarly to how he was that day, simple button-down under a sweater vest, nice slacks, and a dark navy blue trench coat. "Oh, Ohiyou," she greeted sitting up. Katherine placed the book she was reading on the cushion next to her. "Do you need help finding something," she asked standing?

'_She seems more polite,'_ Aidou thought before answering. "I need to pick up a book for a friend. Your filing system seems to be nonexistent," he said.

"Yeah it gets that way," she smiled taking the piece of paper from his hand. Her eyes scanned over the letters before looking around her. Aidou followed as she walked around a row of bookshelves her fingers running over the binding. Her hair was braided today, unlike the last time he saw her. It was a messy French braid that started at one side of her face and went around the back; she was wearing a slouchy black beanie on her head that allowed for her chin-lenght bangs to flow out of the hat. Actually she was wearing completely black today, a black long-sleeved shirt under a black leather jacket with black skinny jeans and black converse.

"Here it is," she said pulling out the book from a taller shelf. Aidou took it from her and stared at the cover making sure it was the right one. Katherine stared that the guy standing in front of her, '_He's even more gorgeous than I remember. How is that possible?'_ She was starting to feel a little guilty for what she had said to him last time the saw each other, but is wasn't like it was completely her fault because he was in fact being an Emily Post. Katherine decided to apologize anyway, "Hey I'm sorry about what I said last time we met."

Aidou stared at her, '_Is she really apologizing?'_

"I had major jetlag and only got about four hours of sleep in a four day period. It kind of turned me into a bitch," she told him with a shrug, "It wasn't anything personal."

"Thank you," he replied still trying to wrap his mind around how she referred to herself as a bitch.

Katherine smiled, "Now that that's out of the way," she held out her hand, "Katherine Taylor." Aidou stared at her curiously. "Oh that's right Japanese people don't shake hands," she told herself.

Aidou couldn't help the chuckle that escaped from his lips. "Aidou Hanabusa," he said holding out his hand. Katherine stared at him then taking his hand and shook it. "Do you work here," he followed her back to the loveseat?

Katherine shook her head, "No I just spend a lot of time here. This is usually where I study. Campus is so dreary." She sat down picking up her book again, "You're part of the night class right?" Aidou nodded. "Shouldn't you be," she trailed off thinking about it, "I don't know… sleeping?"

"Yeah I guess," he sighed. Katherine placed the book in her lap not really reading as she stared at the blonde standing in front of her. Aidou studied her interestedly, "I thought day class students weren't allowed to leave campus."

"We're not," she smirked, "however I've never been one for following the rules." Katherine stared at the boy standing in front of her as she said this then picked up her book returning to the pages, "You can sit if you want to. I would check you out but Ayame doesn't let me use the cash register."

Aidou hesitated. He really wanted to go to sleep, but doing that would mean going back to campus where Kain and Seiren were looking over his shoulder waiting for him to mess up. What surprised him more than anything though was that part of him actually wanted to stay, but that was ridiculous, "How long will she be gone," he asked?

Katherine shrugged her olive eyes not leaving the page, "Could be thirty minutes or it could be two hours." Aidou conceded with a sigh before plopping down on the red loveseat next to the girl. He rolled his head back and closed his eyes. Katherine glanced at him for a second then went back to her book. The two were silent for quite some time neither saying anything the only noise was the music playing through the speakers.

_(If the fish swam out of the ocean and grew legs and started walking. And the apes climbed down from the trees and grew tall and started talking. And if the stars fell out of the sky and my tears flowed into the ocean.)_

Aidou cracked open his eyes and stared at the girl sitting next to him. She hadn't said a word to him since he sat down, but he found that he didn't mind. "What are you reading," he inquired curious?

Katherine held the book so he could see the cover. It was written in English, though Aidou was fluent in English, so he could read it easily. '_The Portable Dorothy Parker,'_ he read to himself. "Any good?"

"Define good," she replied.

Aidou grabbed the book from her hands reading the page she was on, "Daily dawns another day; I must up, to make my way. Though I dress and drink and eat, move my fingers and my feet, learn a little, here and there, weep and laugh and sweat and swear, hear a song, or watch a stage, leave some words upon a page, claim a foe or hail a friend- Bed awaits me at the end." He stared at the page pondering over the words.

"You speak English," Katherine mumbled to herself in English. Aidou heard though and looked at her.

"Why wouldn't I," he questioned in Japanese?

She sat back settling into the cushion, "Few people I've met so far aren't that fluent. They're only just learning or can barely hold a conversation." Katherine stared up at the ceiling as she said this, her mind going to her uncle. Lately she had been getting sort of homesick, which is funny considering that she didn't technically have a physical home. She guessed more than anything she was just missing her uncle and everything around her was so foreign to her. The fact that she met someone else who was fluent in English made her sort of happy.

Katherine sat up coming out of her train of thought, "What about you?" Aidou stared at her confused not understanding the question. "I told you something about me it's your turn," she clarified taking the book from his hands.

"I wouldn't count that as something about you."

She rolled her eyes, "No I said I have a habit of not following the rules. That counts."

Aidou saw that she wasn't going to let it go until he told her something about himself. "I grew up with my two cousins, I'm closer to them than my actual siblings," she nodded.

"That must be nice," she sighed wistfully, "I'm an only child and it's always just been me and my uncle." Aidou noticed how she didn't mention her parents, but her uncle. He was curious as to where they were and why she would be with her uncle. However the look on her face when she said this made him not want to ask. She had this faraway distance look of sadness. The kind of look someone had when they'd lost someone close to them and were remembering that person.

A ringing of the front store bell broke the girl out of her thoughts. She glanced over the railing seeing Ayame. "She's back," Katherine commented to Aidou. He watched as she stood stretching her arms over her head. Katherine closed her eyes and made this little noise as she stretched. "You coming," she looked down at him?

Aidou blinked his cerulean eyes, "Yeah I'm coming." Katherine regarded him then turned and went down the stairs with him following closely behind. Aidou was slightly confused at his train of thought. The way Katherine had stretched combined with that noise she made was actually kind of cute, as if she was a little kitten just waking up from a nap.

Ayame turned around handing Katherine her milkshake and fries. She thanked Ayame popping one of the fries in her mouth then blonde twenty-something year old turned and just noticed the boy standing behind Katherine. "Oh Hi," she greeted, "You weren't waiting long I hope."

"Don't worry Ayame," Katherine brushed off, "I kept him entertained." The girl took of the lid of her milkshake dipping a fry into it then popping said fry into her mouth. The saltiness of the fry mixed with the sweet strawberry flavor of the milkshake combining together to make a sweet-salty taste on her tongue. Ayame studied the girl wearily as she had her fries. She wasn't able to comprehend why Katherine at them that why because to her it was gross. But whatever they're her fries.

Aidou paid for the book and Ayame thanked him for his business. Katherine had disappeared back up to the loft area munching on her fries and reading Dorothy Parker. He could just make out the top of her hat from where he stood. As he opened the door Katherine peered over the loveseat, "Bye Aidou," she said causing the blonde vampire to look up at her.

"Bye," he replied watching as she nodded before sinking down back into the loveseat out of view, then left the store.

Over the next week Aidou had come into the story every day. He wasn't sure why he came to that book store when he'd rather be sleeping, but something about Katherine intrigued him. The more time they spent together the more she baffled him. They didn't really talk to each other much mostly just reading books or her just going through CD's. However it surprised him most when she asked a question that he himself had never considered.

_**Katherine was browsing through the shelves seeing what gems she could find, while Aidou was sprawled out on the loveseat his feet propped over one of the armrests. The girl had had a question plaguing her mind since the blonde boy had started coming regularly to the book store. She considered what would be the best way to bring it up, but was unable to find anyway besides bluntness. **_

_**Aidou was skimming through one of the books that Katherine had placed in her pile. Like most of the books she bought, this one was written in English. And was in fact quite interesting. It wasn't a novel or a biography, or a collection of essays or short stories, it was a study. This book that he was reading was a studying on success. And Aidou was engrossed in it. **_

_**She glanced at the boy her expression pondering. '**_You know what, screw it,_**' she thought to herself before the question that had been plaguing her mind left her mouth, "Aidou, are we friends?"**_

_**His eyes shot up at that question staring at Katherine. She stood there her hand resting on one of the shelves and her doe-like olive green eyes boring into his cerulean blue ones waiting for an answer. Aidou blinked. He hadn't actually considered it. "I guess we are," he drawled in realization.**_

_**Katherine studied him a second longer before turning back to the books, "Interesting," she muttered.**_

After that the two started talking to each other more. Katherine was disappointed when Aidou told her that he didn't really listen to music. She gave him a beseeching look saying something along the lines of, "We're going to have to fix that."

However Aidou was supremely surprised when he found out that she was fluent in five languages. "I have trouble believing that you speak French," he told her incredulously.

"Why is that so hard to believe," Katherine asked, "I mean you don't question me on English, Japanese, German, or Portuguese?" She was gazing at him through the rows of books on the other side of the bookshelf. He shrugged nonchalantly searching the through the books.

"You just don't strike me as the type of person who speaks French."

"You want me to prove it you to you," she questioned taking this conversation as a challenge?

"Sure, why not," he retorted staring her right in the face? Katherine narrowed her eyes pausing briefly waiting for the opportune moment.

That moment arrived seconds later when Aidou had taken a sip of his coffee. "Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir," he immediately choked on his coffee? Coughing, hacking, and gagging as he crouched over trying to catch a breath. Katherine started laughing walking around the bookshelf patting the boy's back trying to help him breathe, while she herself was having trouble because of her laughter.

"Do. You. Have. Any. Idea. What. You. Just. Said," he asked her between coughs. It felt like he was breathing through a straw and the stinging of his lungs was pretty painful. Though through everything there was a slight blush making its way across his face either from the lack of sufficient oxygen or the fact that his was thoroughly embarrassed, it was probably a little of both.

Katherine just smiled innocently her laughter subsiding for the time being. "Of course," she answered like he had just asked the stupidest question she had ever heard, "I asked if you would like to have to have sex with me tonight."

The way she had said it so calmly as if it were a simple fact caused his face to get redder, this time with annoyance. "Well, at least you're well informed," he managed to comeback with sarcastically through his irregular breathing. Katherine burst out into laughter again at his remark.

"God," she cackled slapping him on the back dislodging the coffee from his lungs, "You need to learn to take a joke. It's the lyrics a song I wasn't being serious. Oh, but your face… Priceless; I wish I had a camera."

Aidou glowered at the girl, "You waited until I had coffee in my mouth to say that didn't you." She paused at his accusation a smile pulling at the corners of her lips.

"Yep." '_Didn't even try to deny it,'_ he sighed staring at the girl in bewilderment. Neither of the two was aware of it, but this was the beginning of a crazy, annoying, wonderful, and eccentric friendship. A friendship that in the long run would either tear people apart or bring them closer together. Who could say though really? Even I, the narrator, am not God.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey guys thanks for all the wonderful reviews, favorites, and follows on this story. It's all so encouraging. **

**This chapter takes place between chapter 1 and 2 of the manga. It's like a week and a half period in between. I loved writing the scenes with Aidou and Katherine, they're both so fun to write. Especially the last scene. **

**The songs referenced in this chapter are as followed:**

**99 Luftballoons- Nena**

**Black and Gold- Sam Sparro**

**Lady Marmalade- Christina Aguleria**

**There will be more scenes with these two in the next chapter and you will also see Lucian too. And get to hear about some of Katherine's wacky childhood traditions with her uncle. **

**If you like this installment please review, or follow, or favorite. Constructive Criticism is encouraged.**

**Please Review  
****\/ ****  
**


	5. OneShot You're Such a Pain

**I Don't Date Vampires  
One shot  
**_**"You're Such a Pain"**_

Katherine walked down the steps watching as other kids ran past her eager to get home. The other kids went away with their parents smiling happily as she looked on with envy. Lucian was supposed to pick her up, but he was late again. She sighed; her olive eyes blinking annoyed glaring at everything around her. One would think she would have gotten used to it by now. Being alone. It had been year already since Lucian had shown up on her door step and taken her in. She should be used to it, but she wasn't.

"_**Annie, when are Mommy and Daddy coming back," Katherine asked worriedly sitting next to the redhead? It had been almost a week since her parents had left for work, claiming that they'd be back by that night. However they never returned.**_

_**Annie stared down at the little girl trying to hide her worry. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor had told her that if they didn't return home that she shouldn't worry and just take care of Katherine. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but this was the first time they had been away for so long without calling. "I don't know Kat," Annie answered truthfully. She was tired of lying to the child. **_

_**DING DONG**_

_**The doorbell rang and Annie stood up to answer it, quietly thanking the heavens for giving her a distraction from this conversation. Her hand gripped the door knob firmly as she wrenched the door open. Though when her eyes saw who was there she froze, completely still.**_

_**A man in his early twenties was standing on the threshold. His midnight black hair mused messily, as if he had been running his fingers through it in stress. He was wearing a black shirt and dark jeans with a leather jacket the hazel irises of his eyes bored into her with a completely focused expression. Annie immediately recognized the man; there were pictures of him hanging up in the entryway and by the stairs, yet she had never met him personally.**_

"_**Hello," the man addressed her," my name is Lucian Solvensky. I'm an old friend of Evan and Jessica. May I come in?" Annie nodded still in shock unable to form words. She stepped aside and let him enter the house closing the door behind him. The woman hadn't expected him to be so… handsome. She had seen the pictures, but in person he just seemed so much more…regal. "This is a lovely home," Lucian commented looking around, "though I'm sure that you're already aware of why I'm here, Annie."**_

_**She wasn't sure of how he knew her name, but she just nodded numbly. Lucian being there just drove home the fears that she was trying to suppress. Something had happened to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, it was the only reason that he was there. They had told her once that should Lucian ever come to the house, when they weren't there that Katherine was to go into his custody.**_

"_**Kat," Annie called, "come here I have someone who wants to meet you."**_

_**The little girl slipped from the couch in the living room and ran into the foyer. Katherine instantly froze when she saw Lucian, much like Annie had, her golden brown waves swirling from the sudden movement and her olive green eyes staring at the stranger in confusion and curiosity. Lucian smiled warmly at the child though it was a little forced, "Hello Katherine."**_

_**Katherine blinked. "Hello," she mumbled shyly her eyes falling to the hardwood floor in uncertainty. **_

"_**You probably don't know who I am. My name's Lucian, though you can just call me Luke. I'm a friend of your parents," he explained the smile still firmly on his face.**_

"_**I know," she replied, "Mommy and Daddy talk about you a lot and there are pictures of you together with them." Lucian was surprised at how grown up she sounded, definitely not like she was five years old. "Did something happen," Katherine blurted out her little face scrunching up in worry and her eyes flashing panic?**_

_**He stared down at the girl watching as a thousand emotions crossed her face. The worry, panic, sadness, and fear of losing her parents was shown clearly as her little mind started to process what was going on. Unfortunately he didn't have any good news for the girl and was at a loss for words on how to proceed. How does someone tell a child that both their parents were missing? "I'm sorry," Lucian said kneeling down to be eye level with the girl, "but your parents aren't coming back any time soon. They told me to stay with you until they could though." Katherine's eyes started to tear up at his words barely able to comprehend what he was telling her.**_

"_**What happened," she demanded in a calm voice despite the tears that had already started to spill from her eyes?**_

_**Lucian let out a sigh placing his hand on Katherine's shoulder hoping to comfort her. "I don't know," he said defeated, "But I promise you that I will stay by your side until we find them okay." Katherine gazed at the man in front of her. He had such a determined expression when he made that promise, she believed him. They say a child is a judge of good character because whatever it was about Lucian that made her trust him from the beginning was the reason that on that day she was going to follow what he said without question.**_

After that day Lucian had stayed with Katherine for six months in that house, although when the Colorado state police declared that Evan and Jessica Taylor were officially a cold case, she had moved back with him to Brazil. Rio de Janeiro to be exact. They lived together in a fifth-floor walkup, Lucian was working at one of the many papers there as a Journalist and when Katherine had gotten old enough he had enrolled her in an elementary school ten blocks away.

Katherine was currently standing on the steps of this elementary school waiting for Lucian. She could've easily just walked home. She knew where the spare key was, in the plant next to the door, but he told her that a social worker was coming today and he couldn't leave her home alone. Katherine was determined to do what he asked and wait.

Suddenly someone knocked into Katherine rather forcibly causing the small girl to stumble down a couple of the steps and scrape her knee. She hissed at the scrape her fingers brushing it tenderly blood smearing onto her fingers. There was laughter behind her and Katherine stared behind her cautiously seeing who had pushed her down.

Standing at the top of the steps was Carilena Barros and her group of cohorts. She was easily the biggest bully in the school and was constantly the vain of Katherine's existences. The girl fought the urge to glower at the pretty little Portuguese, choosing instead to take the high road. That decision was derailed when Carilena spoke.

"Oh, silly me," she said feigning innocence, "I can be such a klutz sometimes, though you look good with a little dirt on you." Katherine stood up calmly not letting the other girl get to her. "I'm talking to you," she yelled when she was flat out ignored. When the other girl didn't turn to look at her she huffed again saying something else to her friends. "It's probably because of your lack of respect that your parents abandoned you. You should learn to listen when someone is speaking to you, you know," she added spitefully.

Katherine stopped at the last part. She knew that she was just trying to get a rise out of her, but that bitch crossed a line, as Lucian would say. Carilena was standing as the bottom of the steps now her arm crossed over her chest staring smugly at the golden brown haired girl feeling proud for her insult. "What did you just say," Katherine requested in a deathly calm voice?

Carilena sighed exasperated, "I said," she began like it was a gigantic hassle to repeat herself, "that if you've learned some respect and listened to people when they talked to you then your parents wouldn't have left you."

Hearing her say it again just made that hatred and rage that she felt toward the girl just come to the surface. Her little hand clenched into a fist at her side so strained that her tiny knuckles were turning white. "Just making sure," Katherine retorted in that still eerily calm voice. Carilena was about to sneer again seeing that her words had gotten to the girl, however before she could Katherine had swiveled on her heels and coldcocked her right in the face.

A twisted smile pulled at the corners of her lips when Carilena let out a horrified screech. She was clutching her nose thoroughly freighted of the six year old standing in front of her. Blood trickled down her hand and Katherine smile victoriously at that, '_With any luck I hope it's broken.'_ Then turning around she decided that with everything she wasn't going to wait for Lucian after all.

Lucian couldn't believe it she wasn't there, he had told her to wait for him. And not only that, one of the girls was crying to their parents about having been punched in the face. No doubt Katherine had something to do with that. Oh she was going to get an earful when he got home. He jogged down the road to the place he had been living for two years just cursing this day, Katherine getting into fights, a social worker coming over, and to top it off he got laid off because of financial cut backs. This just wasn't his day.

He climbed the stairs of the stone build taking two a time. When he had gotten to the apartment door he inserted the key into the lock and pushed. Nothing happened. It was like something was barricading the door shut. Lucian could her music blaring behind the door so he knew that Katherine was in there.

Banging on the door he called out her name, "Kit, Open the door!" The only response was the music getting turned up louder.

_(You make me so lonely, baby. I'm feeling so lonely. I'm feeling so lonely, I could die.)_

"Katherine!"

"Leave me alone to die," came her response over the music.

_(Well, the bellhop's tears are flowing and desk clerk's dressed in black. Well, they've been so long on lonely street they ain't ever gonna look back. You make me so lonely, baby. You make me so lonely. You make me so lonely, I could die.)_

Lucian groaned pressing his forehead to the metal door letting the coolness soothe his oncoming headache. "Katherine, open the door right now! We don't have time for this the social worker will be hear any minute," he ordered yelling over the song. No response. '_Okay that's it,'_ he said inwardly. "I swear when I get in there," Lucian began ramming his shoulder into the door, "I'm going to shove you into the blender. Press puree. Then I'm going to bake you into a pie and feed you to the social worker. And when she says, 'Mmm. This is great what your secret?' I'm going to say—"

"Love and kindness," he ended just realizing that said social worker was standing right behind him. She was a thin woman with glasses and snobby demeanor. And she was giving him a look of disapproval.

"Is it safe to assume that you are Mr. Solvensky," she asked clearly not impressed by the display?

He winced inwardly before responding, "Yes. Madame, Lucian Solvensky," he informed holding out his hand. She took it uninterestedly and shook it.

"Are you going to invite me inside or are we going to do this inspection from the front door," she drawled?

"Oh, of course," he hurriedly replied, but then glanced at the door worriedly. "Umm wait here one sec," he told her before slipping down the stairs. He ran outside, down the alley, and up the fire escape. Entering though a window into the bathroom he landed softly on the tile floor. Katherine was lying on the couch with her eyes closed so she didn't see him enter the living room.

Lucian looked around the small room at the colossal mess. Papers were on the floor, so were clothes, and… nails? He let out a groan when seeing that Katherine had nailed the front door shut. Immediately he remembers who was waiting outside said door and ripped the cord of the stereo from the wall; Katherine gave her disapproval with a groan at the loss of music. Then walking across the room he pried he nails from the doorframe with a hammer in about 15 seconds.

When the door swung open Lucian was slightly out of breath and holding a hammer. The social worker raised an eyebrow at the scene but otherwise didn't comment. He stepped aside to let the woman in and she was very surprised at what she saw.

It didn't escape her notice that here were nail scattered on the floor. The girl that she had come to see was drawing something or other and seemed not to care of the woman's presence. "Do you often leave her alone," the social worker asked as Lucian led her into the kitchen?

"No not at all," he answered, "I just had to run to the store for a couple of minutes." The woman hummed writing something down on her pad, Lucian glanced around the room seeing a drawing of Katherine's on the fridge a stick figure of her with the words, 'Me Alone.' His eyes widened and he stealthily tore it from the fridge throwing it in the rubbish bin.

"You left the stove on," she pointed out judgmental. Lucian panicked he rushed to the stove and turned off the dials. He knew that he didn't turn the stove on, again definitely Katherine.

"I found that this morning," a small bored voice commented. Katherine stood behind the two adults staring at the stove with disinterest. When the social worker turned around Lucian glared at the child narrowing his eyes. He watched as the social worker kneeled down and gave Katherine a small friendly smile greeting her.

Katherine only stared at the woman not in the mood to really smile today. "How do you like living here," she inquired kindly? The child's eyes found Lucian's. He gave her a look that said, 'stay to the script say anything else and you're dead.'

She opened her mouth hesitating for a moment; thinking about it. Then she launched into a long monolog, "I like it here. I eat three meals a day with all my food groups. Take naps and go to bed early. I'm learning Portuguese okay, I guess. It's a little difficult and a lot of times I mess up and say the wrong thing, but Luke says that I'll get better at it with practice." Lucian let out a sigh of relief, that she didn't say anything that could be found at fault.

The social worker smiled at the little girl, finding her incredibly adorable. Those doe olive green eyes and the pretty golden brown wavy hair made her just like a little doll. She stood up to her full height and watched as Katherine walked into the other room. "I'm going to be straight with you Mr. Solvensky. I'm the person they call when things go wrong," she told Lucian with a level stare. The woman glanced around the apartment the dirty dishes, burnt pots, messy living room, "And things have indeed gone wrong."

Lucian followed her into the living room and watched as she studied Katherine drawing, with a black crayon, a strange symbol out of a book labeled, 'Practical Voodoo.' She placed a strand of hair into the paper and folded it up then stuck it into a jar and lit it on fire. Katherine turned to the social worker and said in a very calm bored voice, "My friend needs to be punished." He was seething; glaring at the girl even more if that was possible.

"Well I think I've seen enough," the woman announced heading for the door. She clicked her pen clipping it on to her pad, "Oh Mr. Solvensky if you're wondering how this meeting went, it wasn't good." The door closed behind her and Lucian listened as she walked down the stairs. Neither of the two moved until the woman was out of ear shot.

When Lucian turned around the look on his face was one of pure rage and Katherine screamed in terror running away from him as fast as her feet could carry her. He ran after catching her in a tight embrace cutting off her scream. Then the little girl bit him causing him to let go. "Katherine," he yelled exasperated as she slipped from his grasp! Lucian stood up quickly again and ran after her back into the living room, he stopped seeing no one there.

Calmly he took a deep breath to compose himself. Then he walked over to the couch and picked up a blanket lying it down on the floor next to a large old trunk. He opened the front door and slammed it closed waiting patiently by the wall. After a few minutes the lid flipped open and Katherine crawled out carefully stepping onto the blanket. However before she could blink Lucian had grabbed all four corners using it a net and slinging the girl over his shoulder.

Katherine hissed, kicked, and clawed at the blanket trying to break through. He set the bundle down and she tried to escape again, but he quickly grabbed her wrist to prevent her from doing so. "Why didn't you wait at the school?! You were supposed to wait there," he demanded. Katherine ignored him though trying to weasel herself from his iron grip tears coming to her eyes. "Katherine," he raised his voice, "Do you not understand? Do you want to be taken away?" No retort. "Answer me," he barked.

"No!"

"No, what," he asked?

"No!"

"No, you don't understand," he questioned?

"No. Noooo," Katherine said before breaking out into sobs and crumbling to the floor in a heap. She mumbled something inaudible to him as he tried to listen to what she was saying.

Giving up he dropped her wrist and put his head in his hands. "You're such a pain," he huffed.

Katherine sat up drying her tears with the back of her hand and stared at him coldly. "Then why don't you sell me and by a donkey instead," she shouted spitefully.

"At least the donkey would behave better than you!"

"Good you'll like it. It'll probably be smarter than me too," she spit back stomping away from him angrily.

"And quieter!"

Katherine opened the door to her room glaring at him evenly before shouting, "Great. You'll be happy because it'll be Ass just like you!" She slammed the door.

Lucian was filled with so much anger that a six year old had bested him in an argument. "Go to you room," he ordered.

"I'm already in my room," she screamed back opening the door and slamming it closed again for effect. Katherine turned around and grabbed one of her pillows and holding it up to her face screaming into it. Then she fell back on her bed and let the tears pool from her eyes.

Lucian stared at to where the girl had disappeared to the heat of the fight now over only to be replaced with guilt. '_I shouldn't have yelled at her like that,'_ he sighed dejected. She had apparently also had a horrible day; it wasn't like he didn't notice the band aid on her knee. He assumed that it had something to do with that girl getting wacked in the face. Also she only really listens to Elvis like that when she's upset.

Figuring that right now she wanted to be alone, Lucian started to clean up the apartment. Carefully picking up the nails and placing them into a bucket and stacking all the papers together. After the Living room was cleaned he started on the dishes and burnt pots, scrubbing; hoping to get out the stains, but it seemed like a useless cause. He chunked the pot in the trash with a sigh then dried his hands on a dishtowel.

Lucain knocked on the girl's door pushing it open. Katherine was sitting on the window seat facing out towards the window. She was unlike her usual happy self, completely somber. "Hey," he said altering her to his presence, "can I come in?"

Katherine saw him standing the doorway through the reflection. She shrugged her tiny shoulders, "I don't pay the rent," she responded.

He let out a small chuckle sitting on her bed, "Come here." Lucian watched as she slipped from the window seat and crawled onto the bed to sit in his lap. He brushed his fingers through her hair as she snuggled into his chest. "I'm sorry," he told her.

"It's okay," she mumbled, "It was both our faults."

Lucian smiled sadly at the small child in his arms. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong," he brushed his fingers on her scalp comfortingly?

"We're a broken family aren't we," Katherine stated pitifully?

Lucian was unsure of how to respond to that. "No," he protested. "Well maybe a little," he reconsidered though she gave him a look saying 'yeah right', "Okay maybe a lot." He glanced toward the door his mind going back to their argument. "I shouldn't have yelled at you," Lucian muttered apologetically.

"We're family it's our job," Katherine voiced tiredly. They stared at each other in understanding. "Although I like you better when you don't yell," she informed him plainly," and you like me better than a donkey right?" Tears seeped into her olive eyes at the last part.

"Oh, of course I do," he reassured her hugging her gently.

Katherine looked away from him staring out the window. "I punched Carilena Barros today," she stated.

"You punched her?"

"And most likely broke her nose," she added with a shrug.

Lucian was flabbergasted, "Why would you do that?"

She shook her head trying not to cry. "She said that mom and dad abandoned me," Lucian's heart wrenched a little at her words. "They didn't abandon me. They didn't Luke," she said urgently staring him in the eye clutching his shirt. It was like she was struggling to convince herself of that fact.

"Kit," he started seriously, "Your parents loved you very much. You were their entire world they never would have left you on their own free will."

"Really," she sniffed?

"Yes," he expressed firmly. Katherine gave him a little smile in thanks. "I'll tell you what," Lucian started a playful tone seeping into his voice, "If you promise not to get into any more fights, I promise not to yell at you. Except for maybe special occasions."

Katherine's smile grew a little wider, "Wednesdays and Martin Luther King Day would be good."

"Really," he chuckled tickling her, "would that be good."

She giggled squirming in his arms. "Yes. Yes," she laughed with a squeal, "now stop it." Katherine had a full blown smile on her face now her problems forgotten.

Suddenly a flicker of light illuminated their faces from the window. Katherine promptly detached herself from Lucian and scurried to the window. She watched in awe as orb of light fell from the sky and disappeared over the horizon. A firefly flashing for a second before disappearing then reappearing somewhere else. "A shooting star," she cried joyfully, "I call it." He chuckled from his perch on the bed.

Katherine abruptly turned around pulling Lucian from the bed, "Get out Luke. Come on get out I have to make a wish."

Lucian reluctantly stood from the bed stretching his arms over his head lazily. Katherine huffed frustrated that he was taking so long giving him a shove towards the door. He decided to tease her just a little bit slowing his pace to that of a sloth. The little girl groaned pushing against him with all her might her feet scrapping against the floor. "Are you sure you want me to go," he questioned mocking hurt; "I could always stay and talk about how proud I am that you socked that girl in the face." She complained again as Lucian got to the door way.

"Move it," she cried indignant, "Can't you go any faster!"

"Oh no," he responded, "Gravity is increasing on me." Lucian sunk closer to the ground putting more of his weight on Katherine.

"No, it's not!"

"Yes it is, Kit," Lucian told her seriously, "the same thing happened last week. Remember?" He let all his weight fall on the girl squashing her to the floor. He laid there dramatically as she squirmed out from underneath him.

"You're crushing me," she protested pulling her leg out from under his back. Lucian peaked through one of his eyes as she glared down at him moving to her door. "You're so weird," she declared shooting him a questioning glace before slamming the door into his head.

Lucian hissed in pain. She had hit him pretty hard with the door. Although even while he was in pain he was happy that they weren't fighting anymore. However was still going to have to deal with that social worker and find another job. '_Just makes life interesting,'_ he told himself.

He wondered what Katherine was saying in her room and nudged the door open a little peering through it. There she was kneeling on the window seat her hands folded together and her head bowed as if she was praying. Her voice was so quiet and soft that he could barely make out what she was saying.

"It's me again," she began. "I know you hear from me a lot. But the one thing I want more than anything else is my parents. I miss them so, so, much. Though I don't expect you to work miracles, so if you can't bring them back—"she prayed staring out into the night sky. Her voice broke a little as she held back a tiny sob. "Then please send me a friend. Someone who won't run away, or leave. Maybe send an angel," she suggested helpfully, "the nicest angel you have."

He closed the door softly shaking his head. '_Poor kid. She's too sweet to have to go through this.' _It wasn't right that she had to grow up without her parents. It wasn't right that she didn't have any friends. And it most certainly was right that she would often cry herself to sleep at night when she thought he wasn't listening. Lucian vowed that no matter what he was going to make sure that her wish came true; one way or another because she deserved much more than the shitty hand that life gave her.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey guys and gals. Sorry to say that this is not the next chapter of IDDV. The next chapter is going to be longer than the others because of the amount of detail I have to go into like 7,000 or 8,000 words. **

**However I hoped you liked this little one shot. I've had an idea to write this for awhile, but I couldn't figure out a way to work it into the actual story. So instead I just made it a one shot. I'll probably reference this later as things progress. **

**Anyways hopefully this will keep you guy occupied until I can get the next chapter up. And I want to thank everyone's that reviewed, followed, and Favorited this story. I love reviews so keep them up.**

**Heartbreak Hotel- Elvis Presley **

**Please Review**

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	6. (4) St Chocolatey's Day

**I Don't Date Vampires  
Chapter 4  
**_**"St. Chocolatey's Day"**_

"Huh. That's this week."

Aidou glanced up from the book he was reading, "What's this week?"

Katherine paused in the CD's she was sorting through to look at Aidou. He was sitting on a stack of empty milk crates reading while Katherine was helping Ayame do inventory again. She had been telling him about different bands that he would enjoy, but he just brushed it off only really listening halfway. Then something occurred to the girl causing her to tune out and change subjects. "Valentine's Day," she mumbled absent mindedly in response.

Aidou hummed in thought. "I guess it is," he realized.

"How does that work here?"

He stared at her questioningly, his right eye brow raised in a perfect arc. Katherine wanted to giggle at his expression; there were many faces that he made that she found comical. This one was one of her favorites. "How does what work," Aidou wondered not fully grasping what she was asking?

"Valentine's Day," she elaborated, "I mean I know in other countries couples give chocolate to each other and roses. Also hallmark cards are overpriced, and there is that God awful pink everywhere. But in Japan they do things differently don't they?"

Aidou sat his book down thinking about it. "Yeah they do do things differently here. Firstly only the girls give chocolates to the guys and confess their crushes," he explained.

"Then on White Day the guys give gifts back," Katherine finished for him. Aidou nodded. "Would it be wrong to give chocolate so a person could blackmail people into giving them gifts on White Day," she pondered out loud to herself; though it was phrased as a question she wasn't really asking his opinion?

He looked at her wearily, "Yes."

Katherine sighed disappointed, "Well I guess I can't do that then."

He stared at her thwarted expression like she was a child who was told they couldn't have desert until they finished their broccoli. Suddenly a small smile broke out onto her face informing Aidou that she wasn't being serious. After about two weeks he had started to pick up some things about her. One, she was almost always making some sarcastic remark, even if outwardly it didn't seem like one. Two, she wasn't exactly conventional; she would say off the wall things just to see a person's reaction. Three Katherine was unceremoniously blunt about everything and surprisingly spoke her mind telling you exactly what she thought. These things about her weren't exactly big finds in Adiou's opinion; anyone could pick them up with just a couple conversations with her.

"I bet you get lots of chocolate on Valentine's Day," Katherine said almost mockingly to the boy. "In fact I might come to see the night class that day just to see you get trampled," she snickered.

Aidou narrowed his blue eyes glaring at the girl, "Ha. Ha." She laughed again her face lighting up. It seemed that she was constantly laughing, smiling, or smirking at him. Admittedly he had gotten used to it; her teasing that is, usually the only ones that really teased him was Ichijou, Ruka, and Kain. When they did it he found it annoying, but when Katherine did it he really didn't mind all that much. Mostly because she could take it just as well as she could dish it out.

"Are you going to give anyone chocolates," he asked her curiously? She gave him this 'bitch please' look and shook her head no.

"I've never given chocolates to anyone. My uncle and I we celebrate Valentines differently from most people," she informed him, "I mean it's not really that weird, but it is different."

"What do you two do," Aidou probed interested?

Katherine picked up a CD reading the album cover as she answered, "Well every Valentine's Day we make ice cream sundaes, order a massive amount of junk food, and watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We then proceed to eat so much that we have a stomach ache the next day and are unable to move for at least three hours. Then after we're able to move and not throw up, we hit the stores and buy crap loads of all the discounted candy which we snack on through the rest of the year. But that's nothing compared to our Christmas traditions, those are like religious rituals. Like a cult type of religious rituals."

She smiled at the last part memories coming to surface. Memories of her and her uncle building snowmen, snowball fights in central park, locking a lock on the bridge and throwing the keys in the river, and baking in the various kitchens together. She really missed her uncle and the thought kind of sobered her. This was the first time since he had taken her in that they were ever apart.

Aidou chuckled at the mental picture forming in his mind. Katherine not being able to move because of over eating is a very silly picture. "What's so special about Christmas," her mouth tweaks up at the question shaking her head at the ridiculousness of the inquiry?

"Well besides the fact that it's the one day that a person can guilt-trip their loved ones into buying them things that they absolutely don't need, Christmas is by far the biggest holiday for us," Katherine expressed seriously, "It's the one time of year that we don't have to travel anywhere. I mean we go places, but for the entire month of December we don't leave a city. Last Christmas it was London, which is where I was before I came here, and the year before it was New York and the year before that was Paris."

"However if you want a breakdown of our traditions it's something like get a Christmas tree, bake apple pie inside actual apples, build a snowman with a top hat, mustache, and a monocle, buy presents, make popcorn wreathes, hang mistletoe from the ceiling fans, build a gingerbread house, and bake cookies for Santa's reindeer. Which never make it never make it to Santa's reindeer because we eat them," she listed off on her fingers.

Aidou stared at the girl processing everything she just said. "Wow. There are so many things that need to be addressed in that list," he laughed, "but why do you hang mistletoe from ceiling fans?"

Katherine giggled her olive eyes lighting up with mirth, "Because it's more of a challenge." Aidou couldn't help bursting into laughter at her answer and she soon joined him. The two laughed together for a few minutes their laughter drowning out the music that was always playing through the speakers. When they finally composed themselves, Katherine wiped a tear from her eye. "What about you. Any crazy family traditions," she mused a smile still firmly on her face?

"No, not like those," Aidou remarked. His home life was very different from how Katherine's sounded. For one it wasn't all happy memories, or crazy adventures. There was pressure, tremendous pressure, placed on him by his parents. Being an Aristocratic Vampire had its down falls, one of them being that your family expected much more from you than your average family did. They wanted you to be the best at everything, taking almost complete control of your life and not being able to really make any decision for your own. However he couldn't tell Katherine any of this, she wouldn't understand.

"Our traditions are pretty normal," he began choosing his words carefully, "we have presents, eat a fancy dinner, the servants decorate the tree and the house with everything Christmassy. Even birthdays aren't really that big of a deal, my parents always celebrated my birthday with presents and the cook would make some fancy flambé with alcohol. I've always wanted a typical yellow cake now that I think about."

Katherine listened intently to what the blonde was saying. The way Aidou talked about his family was in a way disheartening, she couldn't really relate to the pressure that he must feel. Not that she didn't have pressure with Lucian, but when you're pretty much orphaned that greatly lessens the pressure. However she also felt like he wasn't telling her the whole story, nonetheless she wasn't going to force him to either. It's his business.

"I'll make a mental note of that," she commented with a warm smile.

They both stared at each other for a second. Green meeting blue. Aidou knew that she didn't really get it, yet her eyes showed understanding. At least the closest she could get to it. The serious moment broke quickly enough when Katherine launched into another cheerful story about her childhood distracting both of them from their problems.

"KYAAAA!"

Aidou shifted under the warm duvet tugging the pillow over his head trying to block out the sound. He groaned annoyed and opened his eyes glaring hatefully at the dark drapes. They were parted slightly and the early morning sunshine flowed into the room that he shared with his cousin, Kain.

The room was extravagant compared to the Sun Dormitory. Unlike Katherine's room this one was decked out in classic Victorian style and just screamed wealth. Two crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling the light from the parted drapes creating a prism effect with the crystals. One of those couches was placed by one of the walls, the type of couch that looks nice but is stone hard to actually sit on. There were two beds one on each side of the room, each had soft fluffy down duvets and sheets of Egyptian cotton. Though as extravagant as this room was there was also something laughable about it.

There was a clear barrier in the room, an invisible line separating Kain's side from Aidou's side. One side was perfectly organized, vacuumed, dust free. Everything had its place. The other side was in complete havoc. The floor littered with clothes, papers, and boxes filled with… well a bunch of useless junk. Bent spoons, broken picture frames, chipped tea cups, and shattered glass filled these boxes along with a lot of other crap (That I won't go into right now because whose got the time and Aidou needs to get rid of all that). It's easy to tell which side belongs to whom.

Kain sat up in bed, having been awoken by the excessive noise coming from outside the dormitory. He stood up stretching out his muscles and peaked through the curtain. The light shown through even more blinding Aidou and he hissed in annoyance. "Give me a break," he whined burying his face deeper under the pillow, "I was fast asleep."

The blonde sat up groggily running his fingers through his hair. "What do those damn day class girls want," he mumbled glaring back at the window?

His cousin ignored his comment more focused on what was happening outside. At first glance he was surprised and opened the curtains even more to get a better look. Aidou retreated under his covers, "Akatsuki, the light!" Kain paid him no mind though.

Outside was chaos; the day class students crowding towards the front gates trying to push through, some even attempting to climb the wall. Yuuki was standing on top of the wall yelling at the girls to stop and return to their dorms. They completely ignored her however, just getting more and more crazy. One girl, a sandy blonde with glasses, was getting close to climbing over the wall. Kain could make out her face before it disappeared telling him that she had fallen.

Yuuki blew her whistle cheering, "Way to go Zero. Nice catch!"

"Oh that's right," Kain muttered something just occurring to him, "it's today."

"What is," Aidou hissed still cowering away from the sun under his blankets?

The tall strawberry-blonde smirked at his cousin amused as he responded, "It's the day that girls give out chocolate and confess to their crushes… Valentine's Day."

"Once again you've chosen to start Valentine's Day as the enemy to woman kind," Yuuki sighed placing her hand on Zero's shoulder. She couldn't wrap her mind around why he insisted on being so mean to the day class girls, constantly quenching any chance he had getting a girlfriend. "You do realize that you squashed any hope of getting chocolates this year," she told the sliver haired boy shaking her head.

Zero turned his gaze to the brunette standing next to him. His liquid gray eyes scanned over her face before he scoffed. "What else should I have said," he demanded a little harsher than he meant to? Yuuki only stared at him a loss for words unsure of how to respond. "After all it's my duty as a perfect to keep the day class students from finding out what the night class really is," he added glaring at the building where he could see one of those blood suckers peering through the window.

Kain yawned letting the drapes slide close now that all the excitement had died down, "It'll be fun when the sun goes down. I'm going back to bed." Aidou had already laid back down burying his noise into the sheets taking in the lavender scent humming pleasantly. His cousin glanced at him wearily for a second then plopped down on his own mattress wrapping himself up in the duvet. The last thing he remembered before losing consciousness was Aidou mumbling something like, "Chocolate is pretty good, but I still like blood better for desert."

"What I missed it," Katherine whined disappointed? Yuuki was just replaying the scene to her and Yori about the mob of day class students she had to fight off that morning. The girl was pretty let down that she didn't get to see that, cursing the fact that she was asleep at that time.

"Those day class girls are getting more and more out of control it seems," Yori commented.

Yuuki nodded, "I know. One of the girls actually tried to climb over the wall, using the others as a human ladder. Thank God Zero caught her when she fell."

"Man I got to wake up earlier," she reprimanded herself. There was a squeal from the front of the class distracting the girls from their current conversation. Katherine looked at the three girls gossiping to each other about the chocolates they were going to give to the night class students; it all seem frivolous to her.

"Everyone's really excited aren't they," Yori observed resting her chin in her hands?

"Well today is Valentine's Day it only comes once a year," Yuuki added.

"Valentine's Day," a boy sighed wistfully behind them. The three girls turned around and stared at the class rep, Kasumi Kageyama. "When girls give the guys they like chocolate and confess their undying love. How foolish, it's extremely foolish. I hate this holiday," he muttered spitefully.

Yori regarded him with disinterest, "Even though you might get chocolates too." The boy froze at that remark his mind fading off into a delusional day dream. Ruka stood before him holding a large pink heart-shaped chocolate box with a chocolate brown ribbon. In his fantasy she confessed her feelings saying something along the lines of, "Please accept this chocolate along with my heart," though actual Ruka would never say something so moronic.

"Is he okay," Katherine asked concerned, "he's kind of freaking me out?" Yori let out a small laugh at her comment and Yuuki smiled.

The boy was off in another world. He was zombie blinded by the naive notion of a crush. Katherine having enough of him tuning out poked him in the ribs, "Oy. Earth to Kasumi." Kageyama snapped out of whatever trance he was in and looked at the girls.

"Nani?"

"You were drooling," Katherine pointed out.

Kageyama wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Oh, right. Arigatou," he said somewhat passive aggressively.

"No problem," she said watching as he walked away from them.

"Okay, correct me if I'm wrong," Yori started, "but the Class rep. seemed a little hostile towards you Katherine."

Yuuki nodded in agreement, "Yeah I noticed it to."

Katherine chuckled shaking her head. It was true that Kageyama didn't like Katherine. He was threatened by her and when she passed him on the top students' list a few days earlier, he basically vowed to destroy her. "Umm… Yeah he's still a little sore," she explained with a wince remembering their conversation when he found out, "I knocked him out of the number one student spot a couple days ago. He didn't take it very well."

"Wow, really," Yuuki jumped up from her seat? "Why didn't you tell us? That's big. I could never hope to get on that list," she rambled excitedly.

"It is a great achievement," Yori added.

"Guys stop it I'm blushing a deep shade of red," Katherine said sarcastically. She was in fact not blushing in the slightest, but their compliments were making her a little uncomfortable.

Yuuki smiled, "You're too humble for you own good, Kat. Although while I would like to stay and keep teasing you about this, Zero and I have to go talk to the headmaster. I'll try to catch you two before curfew, okay." She grabbed Zero who was sitting behind them and swiftly dragged him from the room. Katherine and Yori watched them go taking enjoyment in Zero's irritated expression.

"I'm aware that today is Valentine's Day and also that the school is buzzing with excitement," Headmaster Kurosu began, "but there is also increased danger that the day class will figure out the night class's true identity. For that reason I expect you two to be extra vigilant today; you are the school Guardians after all."

Zero rolled his eyes, "Then why don't we just cancel this thing altogether."

While Zero's suggestion was reasonable, it wasn't possible. Canceling this event would lead to even more havoc, creating riots from the day class girls. And no offence to them or anything, but even Kaien Kurosu was a little intimidated by those girls. Especially when they're in giant hoards like they were this morning. "Unfortunately that isn't an option. It would just cause a riot and it's good to give the students and outlet," the Headmaster explained, "besides I can't keep my sweet vampires away from their adoring fans. They're such precious, adorable, creatures that I can't on good conscience make them upset by canceling Valentine's Day for them."

Yuuki glanced back and forth between Zero and the Headmaster anxiously. Zero had this incredibly dark aura seeping out of him, while the Headmaster was talking about the night class. And the Headmaster had this incredibly pleasant aura emitting from him. The two moods were clashing with each other furiously, two snarling dogs fighting over a scrap of meat. "Don't praise that vermin scum to my face," she whispered warningly to the Headmaster, "is what Zero is thinking." Kaien regarded Yuuki's comment with weary eyes, '_Fine I'll be quiet.'_

"I know that vampires have been enemies of humans for several centuries, nonetheless there are still some vampires who wish to coexist with us peacefully," the Headmaster stood from his chair facing out the window; his fur coat swished at the movement, "It's important to teach them to have pride in taking the first steps to building the bridge over the divide between our two races. And Kiriyuu. Even though you may think that impossible… Someday I hope that you will understand that."

"You can't erase the past," the boy grumbled.

"Do you only believe that because they are beasts in human form that drink blood or is it because of your own experiences?"

'_That did nothing to help_,' she panicked. The room was getting more and more hostile by the second and Yuuki sensed a major argument about to break out. In a futile last hope to diffuse the situation she climbed on the desk and kneeled, "Here you go Headma—Dad. Happy Valentine's day." The Headmaster turned around to look at his adoptive daughter. Seeing her offering a gift, he took it, '_20 coupons for Yuuki's shoulder massages'_. "Here's one for you too, Zero," Yuuki tossed a paper to the boy standing behind her.

The two males reaction we diversely different from each other. The Headmaster squealed in joy practically praising the ground that Yuuki walked on, whereas Zero just complained. "One slave coupon," he read jadedly. "You do realize you've given us the same thing since elementary school," he added.

"So sue me," she snapped, "just be glad I gave you anything at all. You ungrateful jerk." Yuuki turned around and sighed at the Headmaster still doing a happy dance, "Headmaster we're going." Then grabbing Zero she dragged him from the office and down the hall.

Katherine walked silently down the corridor heading toward one of the clubrooms. She decided that she would check out the newspaper club, since orchestra was already filled. The Headmaster told her that she needed to have some more extracurricular activities otherwise it would start docking on her grade. It was asinine really; just because she wasn't in a club it was going to hurt her grade point average.

In the student handbook, which she skimmed through on the plane, it stated that all students were required to join at least two clubs. Since she came later in the year a lot of those clubs were filled. The Headmaster had made and exception for her because of it, but now that the new semester drop period had started he said, "There is no excuse for a young lady like you to not find something you would enjoy." Katherine scoffed in her mind. It was true that there shouldn't be a problem joining a club, yet all the clubs that she wanted to join were filled.

She didn't even really want to join the newspaper club. Yeah most people would think that because she grew up with a journalist, she would love it. But no, she did not love it. She loved the travel, she loved the cultures and the experiences, but she did not enjoy the writing. However this was not to say that she couldn't write; she could. Katherine was essentially an incredible writer, it was kind of a given for her circumstances, still it was not what she loved.

When approaching the large, thick wooden door Katherine had a brief moment of doubt. '_Maybe I should just turn around,'_ she considered hesitating, '_No Katherine, you are better than this. You have a backbone… now use it.'_ Mustering up her confidence he pushed the door open and walked into the room.

The room had individual desks, like tiny cubicles in a real newspaper office. A large counter toward one of the wall was where they did layout, and there was a blackout room for developing pictures. Several computers sat on top of these desks each one of the newest version of windows seven. There were a few students there using their lunch break to work on pieces and Katherine recognized a two in particular.

"Katherine," Hiyoki called enthusiastically turning around? She ran to the door, "what are you doing here?'

"Umm… I heard that there were some openings and that this club was in need of writers," Katherine answered impassively.

"Oh you're going to join the paper? That's so cool," she jumped up and down excitedly, "Hey Natsume." The other girl glanced up at her name, "Go get the editor, tell him we got a recruit." Natsume noticed Katherine standing in the doorway and smiled at her before disappearing into an office type room that Katherine had just noted. "This is going to be so much fun," Hiyoki squealed eagerly, "we don't get a lot of writers here. Mostly because we have to work weird hours and on the weekends. Not all weekends though—" she added fearing that she was just scaring Katherine off.

"I didn't know that you could write though," she commented more to herself, "but that doesn't really matter. I'm sure you're going to like it here."

The two were interrupted from their conversation, if you could call Hiyoki squealing about how much fun it would be to be on the paper together a conversation, when the editor walked up. At Cross Academy there was a student editor and a teacher editor. The teacher editor had final say in what goes, but the student editor was more like the senator to the president (teacher editor). "I regret to inform you miss Taylor, but there are no open positions for you,"Kageyama stated coolly.

'_Oh shit,'_ Katherine remarked to herself. She was unaware that Kageyama was the student editor, he hated her. '_Well this was definitely a dead-end,'_ she sighed inwardly. "Oh okay," she shrugged not greatly affected by it, "Thank you for your time. I guess I'll just go check with the German club. I heard a lot of them left after seeing Schindler's List." Turning on her heels she started to head for the door.

"Class Rep," Natsume warned watching Katherine walk away from them, "we need writers. Why are you turning her away? It's just Me, Hiyoki, you, and Nadeshiko Shino we need more writers."

As much as he hated to admit it Natsume was right. They did need more writers, but Katherine Taylor? Kageyama just couldn't have her in the same club as him. She had already taken the top student spot from him, how long until she rips the editor position from him too? And if that happens, what's going to stop her from becoming class rep? That was who he was, people called him class rep. instead of his actual name so much that he often felt like they didn't even know what it was. If she took that from him he would just be Kasumi Kageyama, a nobody, just a number in a fancy Japanese boarding school of one of the guys that didn't get acknowledge because of the night class. But they needed writers… "Wait," he called out causing Katherine to pause and stare questioningly, "I suppose we could find a place for you." He said the last part through gritted teeth.

Katherine was actually surprised that he agreed. She could tell that he didn't want to let her join. "I'm not sure," she started. Katherine didn't want to be in a place where she wasn't wanted.

"I insist," he said seriously. The girl still seemed a little unsure, her olive eyes darting to the door debating whether or not to leave. '_She can't seriously make me beg her to stay here,'_ he groans incredulously. "Katherine, don't make me beg," Kageyama stated in a somewhat desperate voice.

"Okay well I guess if you insist," Katherine said conceding. Funny how he didn't want her to be there, but when she walked away he pretty much begged her to be. '_Reverse phycology_,' she snickered to herself amused.

YAWN

"Finally one more period after this," Yuuki sighed stretching her arms over her head. They had just finished their ethics lesson and she was tired of school. Not many of the students were actually really paying attention in class; no doubt Valentine's Day had something to do with that. The girls especially were gossiping to each other, flat out ignoring the teachers.

"Who are you giving yours too?"

"No way; I'm not telling."

"Don't you think this ribbon is so cute?"

Yori observed the girls with disinterest. She had never really gotten Valentine's Day; it was stupid in her opinion. More of an excuse for girls to confess their feelings that they wouldn't have the nerve to confess otherwise, if you like someone then you should just say it. Period. "Everyone's getting restless," she commented slipping her notes into her book bag.

"Are you giving chocolates to anyone, Yori," Yuuki questioned snooping?

"I couldn't be bothered."

"Not even for the night class," She wondered?

"No," Yori shook her head, "not even for the night class. Personally I always favored the day class anyways. What about you?"

Upon hearing this question Yuuki got awfully nervous. "What me? Pffftt. Please of course not," she lied. Yori stared at her strangely clearly not believing her.

"Then what's that," she pointed to a green ribbon poking out of Yuuki's jacket pocket?

Knowing that she was busted, Yuuki sighed. "Okay, well the truth is that I had to buy it from a shop. When I tried to make it myself, it was an utter disaster," she conceded to Yori, "It's so humiliating no one else in class is that lame."

"So, who's it for? Obviously it not for the person glaring daggers into our backs," she stated plainly.

Zero's liquid gray eyes were burning holes into the two girls sitting in front of him. '_How could she possibly give that to him,'_ he criticized skeptical? It wasn't really any of his business who Yuuki gave chocolates too, but the fact that she wanted to give them to that pureblood parasite really irked him. "You're a perfect for God sakes," he snapped standing from the desk, "are you really going to give them to him?!"

Yuuki jumped at the harshness of Zero's voice. He was always more aggressive when Kaname was involved but she had never seen him so specifically angry. It was almost as if… '_No that's impossible. Zero is not jealous of Kaname_,' she shook that thought from her head. "Why would it matter to you," she countered? He didn't have any right to get so possessive all the sudden and how dare he judge her.

Katherine watched the two as they glowered at each other. She had decided to stay out of this fight; it wasn't really anything that she had a clue about. It's not to say that it didn't worry her though. Zero had been her seatmate for over a month and in that time she had learned several things about him. The main thing being that despite his outward appearance he wasn't a bad guy. He was actually pretty nice when you got down to it and cared about people, especially Yuuki, very deeply. It shocked her to see him so visibly upset.

He hesitated at her question. It really shouldn't matter to him. He didn't have any say in what she did. Then why did he all the sudden get protective? There was no good answer to this question. "Do whatever you want Yuuki," he sighed resignedly, "I'm going to go to class." With that said Zero slid out of the seat and exited the classroom. Katherine watched him go, her olive eyes apprehensive.

She didn't really pay much attention to the conversation walking a little ways behind Yori and Yuuki. Katherine was still worried about Zero, in a way. '_Yuuki can be such an idiot sometimes,'_ she breathed shaking her head. It was obvious that he was upset about her giving chocolates to another boy, though there seemed to be something more to it, but she couldn't place her finger on what it was. That was basically the main issue nonetheless and Yuuki couldn't see it. '_Or maybe she did, but is just in denial. I've never thought her to be cruel though,'_ she considered to herself, '_or maybe I'm just reading too much into everything.' _

"Katherine," Yori stopped turning to look at the girl. She had her eyes to the floor and her eyebrows were scrunched together in thought. It was strange to see her with such a serious expression. "Katherine," she tried again poking her in the forehead. Her olive eye flashed up to stare, "If you keep thinking like that you're going to get wrinkles," Yori told her.

Katherine let out a small laugh at her comment, "Yeah I'm sorry Yori. I was kind of lost in my own head, it happens sometimes."

"Are you okay, Kat," Yuuki asked concerned?

She gave Yuuki a reassuring smile, "yeah I just think I left my notes in my room. Umm… I'll catch up with you two okay." Yori and Yuuki gave each other a questioning glance as Katherine disappeared from sight. Neither was sure what had gotten into the girl, but Yori did have a growing suspicion that it had something to do with the spat between Zero and Yuuki.

Katherine jogged down the hallways silently. Truthfully she had lied to Yuuki and Yori about leaving her notes in her room, that wasn't the case they were in her back pack tucked between her Literature and History notes. But she was really too troubled to go to class and missing one class won't affect her too much, besides it was the end of the day and most of the students had already checked out mentally by now.

She rounded the corner and exited the building heading toward the stables. If she remembered correctly, from her tour with Yuuki, it was close to the millpond tucked in between the Headmaster's house and the Night dormitory. Katherine slowed to a stop when the old, brown barn came into view, she was sure this was where he had went. Her converse padded softly on the grass making minimal noise. Debating whether or not to turn around or check and make sure Zero was okay she stopped and stared in through the open door.

In reality they weren't even friends, the two just happened to sit at the same desk. Though Katherine didn't think that Zero hated her, she wasn't sure that he would want her company at a time like this. '_I can at least make sure that he is okay,'_ she told herself. If he didn't want to her stay than she wouldn't, but it's always nice to have someone there who is actually willing to listen even if they don't want to talk.

Zero was lying down on a fluffy pile of hay eyes firmly closed, his jacket thrown off to the side next to him. Katherine stared at his sleeping form and silently crossed the distance between them sitting down at his side without a word. There was silence complete silence in the barn, the kind of silence you get when people just shut up and listen. Only the sounds of nature, leaves rustling, horses snorting, and the steady, calm breathing of the two figures sitting on the hay.

"What are you doing," Zero questioned peeking through one of his eyes? Katherine was sitting next to him staring at her hands placed gently in her lap. Her Golden waves cascaded down her shoulders shielding her face from his view.

Katherine numbly tucked her hair behind her ear and sighed. "What it looks like. Skipping class," she answered turning her olive eyes to Zero's. She was the picture of nonchalance closing her eyes letting the silence fall over her again, "am I not allowed to be here?"

There was an underlying message in her words that Zero picked up on. She was checking up on him, which was strange. Katherine had really no reason to be there, she had no reason check up on him, but she was doing it anyways. '_Strange girl,'_ he already knew that though. "Do whatever you want," he sighed closing his eyes again.

Katerine sat quietly for an hour next to Zero not saying a word. The silence gave her some reflection time for her own life. Memories flashing through her mind as if she was watching a movie. Scenes of child versions of her slowly growing up. She realized that despite everything, growing up without parents, she didn't have a terrible childhood. It was probably one to be envied by others; it took her awhile to realize this though. When she was little she didn't think anyone would want her life.

"It takes time for things to sink in," she mumbled absentmindedly, "sometimes more time for some than others." Zero glanced at her curiously when she said this. Sitting in utter stillness for a whole hour then she says that? Katherine had this faraway look on her face. It was like she didn't realize she had said that sentence out loud. Though in spite of this Zero found that her words actually made him feel better. Before he was just feeling angry and miserable, but when she said that he found that he now felt calm and maybe a little cheerful. It was amazing how she knew just what to say to certain people.

"Come on let's go," he ordered standing sliding his arms back into his jacket. Katherine looked up at him blankly before standing too and brushing the dirt off her skirt. She followed quietly behind keeping that silver hair in her line of sight as they walked to the Night dormitory. Judging from the loud squeals they could hear it was about time for the night class to make their appearance.

When they arrived at the Night dormitory, Katherine was downright overwhelmed at the sight that met her eyes. It was like every girl on campus showed up to this thing and in a school with about three-thousand students half of them being girls… well it's easy to picture the widespread chaos. They had riot control barriers set up creating a safe path for the night students, but some of the girls were trying to climb over them. "Holy Shit," she said in English forgetting that she was in the company of people who really only spoke Japanese, "This is the craziest… I don't even know what to say about this. It's like… I don't having anything to compare it too. My mind is completely blank. Shit."

Zero was staring at her in wonder. He hadn't heard her speak English before and Katherine was stuttering for words in it. Of course he really had no clue what she was saying, it could be anything. From what he could catch though, from his studying English, she was saying something about all the girls.

"Black Friday sales! That is the closest thing I have to compare it too. But not just Black Friday sales, it's Black Friday sales at David's Bridal with future brides and bridesmaids slaughtering each other over white—" Katherine trailed off just noticing Zero's confused expression, "dresses," she finished. "Umm… Gomien Zero," she apologized switching back to Japanese, "I forgot I was supposed to be speaking Japanese."

"It's okay," he told her still fascinated.

"It is always like this," she wondered looking around? Katherine didn't even recognize half the faces there.

Zero shrugged, "More or less."

Katherine hummed, "Okay, well I'll let you do whatever it is you do. I'm just going to find a place to go where I won't get trampled." Zero nodded at her silently agreeing that it would be best. With that said she started working her way through the mob, pushing some of the girls aside saying the polite 'excuse me' and the not so polite 'coming through'. Finally she saw a place away from all the madness, a tall sakura tree rose from the mass of people, a small island in the open expanse of sea.

Katherine hoisted herself up on a branch easily enough climbing up a bit higher to see over the hordes of girls. She had the perfect view of everything from where she was sitting. The gate of the night dormitory clearly visible with nothing obstructing her view she should be able to observe in peace. She snuggled down onto the branches; they were really perfect, acting like Mother Nature's Lazyboy.

A loud chorus of screams erupted from the girls causing Katherine to cringe. '_So much for observing in peace,'_ she thought rolling her eyes.

Aidou waited impatiently for the gates to open twitching in excitement. Valentine's Day was his favorite unofficial holiday, especially at Cross Academy. The only thing that could make this day any better would be to get a sip of blood from the day class girls instead of chocolate, but since that wasn't possible he'd have to settle for his second favorite treat chocolate.

Kain walked up next to his cousin and yawned. "I'm still tired," he told Aidou.

"Really I'm wide awake," Aidou replied his cerulean eyes lighting up with anticipation. The gates creaked open causing another round of fan girl screams when they caught sight of the night class. "Wow," he said his eyes widening, "This year the girls are going into hysterics. It's awesome! This is so cool."

Shiki was less than thrilled about this though, unlike Aidou, "I've just stepped into my own personal hell." He stared at the crowd of students with a look of distain and boredom.

Ichijou laughed placing a hand on the model's shoulder, "It's not so bad Senri. Stop being such a spoilsport."

"Okay! Welcome to the traditional Valentine's Day, 'who is the lucky winner of the day class girls' chocolate' line up race," Yuuki stated facing the night class students. Zero stood behind her eyeing everything with disinterest. "The rules are simple," she explained, "All members of the night class are to walk to their individually assigned gates. Once in position, the girls will line up to give you their chocolates. Please stay calm and cooperate with each other."

"Understood? I would like to remind you all that this is not a game," she continued seeing Aidou shivering in excitement, "This means a lot to these girls so take it seriously."

Katherine burst out laughing seeing Aidou bolt towards the girls saying something like, "Hooray! They're mine, all mine!" The girls' screams grew louder calling him by his nickname 'Idol-sempai'. '_Aidou, Idol. How unoriginal,'_ she chuckled to herself.

"Aidou," Kaname's voice halted the blonde mid-sprint, "remember to mind your manners. Understand?"

He turned around and faced the pureblood, "Of course Kaname-sama." Composing himself he strode calmly to his gate. The rest of the night class followed suite walking up to their respective gates.

Katherine watched with interest from her perch in the tree. She couldn't deny that the night class was unbelievingly pretty; she had never seen so many pretty people in one place like that before. They all had pale complexions, perfect figures, and an air of confidence about them that was very intimidating. The one thing she found interesting about them though wasn't how they looked, it was how they interacted with the day class. Like they were better, '_I guess I was right about them being pompous bastards.'_ Even Aidou was acting remarkably different from that awkward boy who would hang out with her in the bookstore, feeding all the girls lines making them swoon. '_A regular Tamaki Suhou,'_ she observed.

"Umm… Please accept this Kaname-sempai."

Kaname stopped seeing one of the girls holding out chocolates to him. He was just intending on walking by, but he figured that a few couldn't hurt. "Arigatou," he took the small box from the girl's hands. Taking that chocolate box immediately opened up the floodgates to the other girls and in a matter of minutes his hand were filled, "Gomien, I'm afraid I can't hold anymore."

"Oh that's okay," they chorused.

He smiled graciously at them before walking away stopping briefly to talk to Yuuki. "Thank you for everything Yuuki. Don't get hurt," he told her.

"I-I won't," she replied. '_I missed my chance,'_ Yuuki thought dolefully. While she wasn't paying attention the group of girls she was holding back burst forward and knocked her down. If she had a 100 yen for how many times that had happened she'd be a millionaire by now. When she fell the chocolate box slipped from her jacket pocket clattering on the cobblestone pathway.

Zero sighed and picked it up. "Kuran," he called tossing the box through the air. The pureblood turned around and caught it gracefully, "You dropped that." Meanwhile Yuuki was frantically searching her pockets panicking when the chocolate wasn't there. '_Did it get kicked somewhere,'_ she wondered glancing around worried looking for the familiar green ribbon.

Kaname glanced down at the small box in his hands. Yuuki's scent was wafting from the green ribbon, and he had to fight a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I accept it," he said, "thank you Yuuki."

"A-n-no problem," she said hurriedly. As soon as Kaname was out of sight Yuuki swiveled on her heals and punched Zero in the stomach. "How dare you just give it to Kaname like that? Ugh, I could kill you right now, just strangle you with my bare hands," she yelled ferociously, pounding Zero over and over.

"You were going to wimp out. I saw you," he retorted dodging punches. Yuuki directed one more punch to his face, which Zero caught at the last second. She attempted to pull her hand from his grasp, but held it firmly in place. "I'll let you go if you stop hitting me," he told her. The brunette reluctantly agreed with a nod of her head and Zero released her fist.

"He probably didn't really want it anyways," Yuuki muttered watching to where Kaname had disappeared, "He belongs with the night class and I can only ever really catch a glimpse of what it must be like, the things that he sees. He's so different from me."

Zero groaned internally at the girl by his side. '_When will she realize that Kaname is just like the rest of them? Of course it would never work,'_ he sighed irritated. A sudden breeze blew through the area, rustling Yuuki's hair. Zero got a sudden whiff of her scent causing his throat to go dry and his mouth to salivate. He swallowed thickly, '_This cannot be happening now.'_ Quickly and silently he slipped away from the crowds of people getting as far away from the beating hearts as possible, retreating to the barn.

He leaned against the wooden wall clutching at his throat. The hunger was getting worse and as much as he hated to admit it he wouldn't be able to resist much longer. A snapping of a twig alerted Zero to someone else's presence. "I know you're there," he called out to the girl hiding behind a tree.

The girl came out from behind the tree nervously. Zero recognized her from that morning he had caught her when she fell, her name was Shino something. "Umm… Ki-i-ri-i-yu-u-u," she stuttered timidly, "I wanted to thank you for sa-aving me this mor-rning. And since you're supposed to thank people with chocolates, I'd thought I gi-i-ve you th-i-is." Shino held up a small blue box tied with a black and white ribbon, "I made it myself."

"Go away," he said harsher than he meant to.

The girl jumped, "But, I."

"Just forget about it," he hissed.

She still seemed hesitant to leave. "Are you ok—"

Zero slammed his fist into the wood, "Leave now," he growled. He glared at the girl causing her to panic dropping the chocolate box on the grass.

"Gomien," she said bowing politely than turning and fleeing from the scene. Zero's eyes stared at the abandoned chocolate box and sighed. Leaning down he picked it up, studying it for a second then slipping it into his pocket.

Katherine sat patiently in the tree waiting for the crowds to clear. Her feet swung back and forth idly as she stared of into the distance. "What are you doing up there," someone called from below? Katherine snapped out of whatever trance she was in and glanced down seeing Aidou standing beneath her peering up curiously.

"Avoiding the fray," she answered, "What are you doing down there?"

"Talking to you," he replied.

Katherine chuckled at his statement a small smile on her face. "Well that's pretty obvious," she remarked. She stared at him taking in his appearance. The white night class uniform complimented him nicely making his eyes seem bluer if that was possible. His arms were filled with boxes of chocolate from his adoring fans, "Are those for me," she inquired innocently gesturing to the chocolate?

"As if," he scoffed. Aidou knew she was just teasing him, Katherine's funny little way of showing she cares. This was the first time they had run into each other on campus; it was a little weird, but not bad. He hadn't seen her in a skirt before and was pleasantly surprised that she had long dancer's legs. "I didn't expect you to show up here," Aidou commented.

"Well the way you described the fan girls was interesting I wanted to see for myself," Katherine shrugged apathetically.

"And."

"You held back a lot," she finished tucking her hair behind her ear.

Aidou laughed, "Yeah, well, there is really no way to describe this," he motioned to the area around them.

"Agreed," Katherine nodded, "Now move I'm going to get down, unless you want me to land on you." Aidou took a couple steps back to allow her to climb down from the tree. The girl landed gracefully on the grass, brushing some dirt off her uniform.

"You climb trees often," he questioned teasingly?

Katherine took one of the chocolates from his arms twirling it in her hands, "Not as often as I would like." She untied the velvet ribbon and popped one of the candies into her mouth, the sweet bitter taste spreading across her tongue. It was actually quite good. She wondered who made this; maybe she could track them down and get the recipe.

Aidou protested,"Hey, I thought I said I wasn't giving you any."

She stared at him blankly, her olive eyes lighting up with amusement. "You didn't give me any. I took one," Katherine said matter-of-factly, "there's a difference." He sighed seeing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with arguing with her. "Why'd you come over here anyways," she questioned closing the box and retying the ribbon and slipping the package into her jacket pocket.

"I'm not sure."

"Oh, okay," she told him, "Well I'm going to go eat dinner now. Have fun in class." She patted him on the arm as she brushed by ignoring the strange looks that were being given to her by the other straggling day class girls. Aidou watched her as she strode away back to the Sun dorms; somehow she had always managed to get the last word in. That both annoyed and amazed him simultaneously.

Katherine jogged up the stairs to her room after raiding some of the food from the dining hall. She was carrying her bounty in a bag. Unfortunately it wasn't a burlap sack with a big dollar sign on it; it was just a plain white grocery bag. Opening the door to her room she dumped the contents of the bag on the bed and grabbed her computer turning it on.

Pulling up the Google search engine she typed in, 'willy wonka and the chocolate factory megashare' and hit search. A ringing started from her laptop informing her that Lucian was calling on skype. "Hey Luke, "she greeting smiling as her uncle's face appeared in the corner of the screen, "hold on one sec, I'm pulling up the movie." She waited as the screen loaded and turned her attention back to Lucian, "Okay here's what I got," Katherine stared picking up the various food items, "Chocolate cover strawberries, some apple jacks, vegetable sushi, a tub of vanilla ice cream, and some homemade chocolates that I snagged off of a friend. What about you?"

Lucian chuckled his voice coming through Katherine's headphones, " Chocolate chip cookies, potato chips, a turkey sandwich, some frozen yogurt, hot chocolate, and some triple fudge brownies that one of the soldier's wife sent over."

"Yum," she said with a look of envy, "Okay so are we going to start the movie?"

"Sure whenever you're ready," he told her.

"Okay then, we hit play after three," she ordered all serious. "One. Two. Three," she counted out loud.

CLICK

"Wow. We did that at the exact same time," Lucian commented impressed as the opening credits began to play.

"It was pretty cool," Katherine remarked, "but seeing all that chocolate almost makes one sick." The opening credits of the movie had rows and rows of chocolate bars, kisses, and caramels on conveyer belts. It all looked amazing, but she knew that three bars in she would get sick of it. Lucian nodded in agreement.

_(My dear boy do you ask a fish how it swims? A bird how it flys? No sire you don't. They do it because they were born to do it. Just like Willy Wonka was born to be a candy man and you look like you were born to be a Wonka-er.)_

"The candy man can," Katherine hummed singing along, "cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good…" Lucian chuckled at her, "What," she demanded?

"One minute in and you're already singing the songs," he laughed.

"Oh shut up," she frowned before breaking out into a smile, "besides it's your fault anyways. You're the one that showed me this movie in the first place."

"And I had no idea that it would lead to such an addiction," Lucian deadpanned.

Katherine scoffed, "Like you yourself aren't addicted. Do I need to remind you of the reoccurring dreams about marrying an Oompa Loompa."

"Fair enough," he conceded holding his hand up in surrender, "We're both addicted." The two fell into a pleasant silence sitting back and watching the movie. Katherine had pried off the lid to the carton of vanilla ice cream and was digging into it with a spoon, while Lucian was sipping at his hot chocolate.

_(Up the airy mountains, down the rushing glen. We would dare not go a hunting, for fear of little men. You see, nobody ever goes in, nobody ever comes out.)_

Katherine shivered at those words, "That butcher guy really freaks me out. Especially how he's staring at poor little Charlie like he's about to slice him up with one of his cleavers."

Lucian burst out laughing at her remark. "And you see how he ran away from him," he added. Katherine giggled nodding her head digging into the ice cream tub again.

_(Gentlemen I know how anxious you all have been during these last few days. But now I think I can safely say that your time and money have been well spent.)_

"I love this scene," Katerine cried joyously biting into a chocolate covered strawberry!

_(Ding. It says I won't tell that would be cheating.)_

She bit down on her bottom lip in anticipation holding back a laugh. '_That computer is such a troll,'_ she smiled.

_(Ding. He says what would a computer do with a lifetime supply of chocolate? I am now telling the computer exactly what he can do with a lifetime supply of chocolate!)_

Lucian and Katherine fell back into their typical routine when watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It was a little different than it normally was, however because they weren't sitting next to each other in front of the TV. But it was still fun. It's nice to have a tradition that a person could rely on, especially surround by things that are so foreign. "This was fun," Katherine sighed as the movie ended.

"Yeah it was," Lucian yawned.

"I should probably let you go to bed," she said worriedly, seeing the dark circles under his eyes, "It's like 3:00 a.m. there isn't it."

He yawned again, "Yeah. It's okay though I usually chose night to do my writing anyways. It's quieter, easier for me to think."

Katherine let out a yawn too, "Your yawning is contagious." He nodded rubbing his tired eyes. "Well I'm going to get off. I'll probably talk to you tomorrow, get some sleep and don't work too hard okay?"

"Okay Kit," he said tiredly," pay attention in class. And do try to have some fun."

"I'll try," she gave a small smile before closing the program. Shutting shut her laptop she set it back on the desk and cleaned out the empty food containers throwing them in the trash. '_I didn't tell him I got on the newspaper,'_ she realized slipping out of her uniform and into a pair of soft fuzzy pajama pants. They were light pink and had little white and gray sheep on them. She threw on a black tank top and picked up her clothes throwing them in the laundry basket she had bought on one of her trips out of the school. '_Oh well, I don't really think it matters either way. Though it would make him pretty happy,'_ she thought turning off the lights and slipping under the covers. Katherine dozed off into a peaceful slumber, her dreams being filled with chocolate rivers, edible wallpaper, and tiny orange men.

**Author's Note:**

**Here you go. Chapter four. I'm surprised at how long this is 9,448 words. I could have probably went longer, but I decided to cut the ending short.**

**Fun Fact for you guys Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of my favorites childhood movies. I love Gene Wilder, he's makes an amazing Wonka and while I like Johnny Deep as Edward Scissorhands, Jack Sparrow, and the mad Hater... his Wonka is more on the scary crazy side, instead of Gene Wilder's which is the fun crazy.**

**Nani= What? in japanese**

**There will be more Hiyoki, Natsume, and Kageyama in later chapters. In fact he will probably become Katherine's school rival as you can see he's already threatened by her. If you like this story please review. I love the reviews they give me inspiration for my writing.**

**Please Review**

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	7. (5)A Day in the Life of Katherine Taylor

**I Don't Date Vampires  
Chapter 5  
**_**"A Day in the Life of Katherine Taylor"**_

My life? Well how does one describe one's life, their past and the decisions that they made to lead them to where they are now? How does one describe oneself? People perceive things differently. The way I see myself is not how other people see me, just like how I see other people is not the way they see themselves. I guess that a good place to start would be the bare facts.

Hello my name is Katherine Irina Taylor or Kit for short. Many people that call me Kit aren't aware that my initials are in fact K.I.T. though I don't really mind. Personally I find it incredibly amusing, like my own private joke. Though not everyone calls me Kit, some call me Kat, others call me Katherine, one person actually called me Katie once, but I'm pretty sure that was because they forgot my name.

I am the daughter of Evan and Jessica Taylor, their only daughter. My parents married young, from what I remember, high school sweethearts. They didn't meet in high school though which was interesting, instead running into each other at a party or what not. My mother was a recluse staying away from people, quietly observing from the shadows. My father however, was the life of the party, extremely outgoing, popular, confident, and smart. They were complete opposites from each other, but I guess that the saying 'opposites attract' is true. I'm a living testament to that fact.

Growing up I was told again and again, "You look just like your mother." That is true I do take after her in appearance, more so now that I'm older. I always considered my mother to be pretty, from what I can remember. Though it wasn't a typical pretty, it was the kind of pretty that was harder to see at first. The kind of pretty that was just hiding under the surface like a geeky girl who wears those big framed glasses, but when she takes them off you realize that she was in fact pretty from the beginning. It was just hidden because she didn't do anything to make herself standout.

We both have wavy golden brown hair that when the sun hits it just right it appears to be red. Our eyes are a clear olive green with a tint of gold around the pupil and a ring of pale gray at the outer rim of the iris. My skin is a shade darker than her creamy porcelain. I'm also about two inches taller, standing at 5'7 to her 5'5.

The funny thing though is while I look most like my mother, I take after my father in personality. I'm confident, adventurous, outgoing, laidback. This is not to say that I do not enjoy being by myself, I do. Sometimes a little more than I should. Right now you're probably asking yourself, 'where are her parents?' The answer is fairly simple, they're dead. Or at least I've accepted them to be dead; the main point is that they're not in my life anymore, so they're dead to me.

My legal guardian is Lucian Solvensky. I call him Uncle Luke a lot, when in truth he is not even my uncle. It's just easier sometimes then to explain. My parents were the only children in their families, they didn't have brothers or sisters and their own parents had long since passed. When they 'died' I was left completely and utterly alone. I would have been placed into foster care had Lucian not shown up and taken me in. I still consider him family despite everything, we may not be related by blood, but not all families are.

An annoying buzzing noise awoke me from my dreams and I lazily rolled over and placed the pillow over my head to drown it out. I hate mornings. They give me too much reflection time on my past. I stared out hatefully at my alarm clock from under my pillow the numbers 5:30 a.m. glowing brightly on the screen. '_Well nothing left to do but get up and face the music_,' I told myself slowly sliding from the warm comfortable bed and turning off the alarm.

The first thing I do when I get up is brush out my hair. I get terrible bed head in the mornings. It's a good thing that no one else has ever seen me like this, except for my uncle. I would probably be mortified if that happened. Grabbing my black paddle brush I ripped through my tangles none to gently, and then I wrapped my hair in a mess bun and secured it with an elastic tie.

The second thing I do each morning is practice my violin. I always make sure that it's perfectly tuned, polished, and gleamed like at precious jewel. My violin gets better treatment then my books. That is really saying something because all my books look to be brand new, as if I've never cracked the cover when in reality I've read all of them at least five times.

I didn't want to play the violin for a long time after my parents… well you know. There were many reasons for this. It was them that took me to my first lesson when I was too young to be starting. The teacher preferred all the kids to be at least six, I had just turned five. But it was because of my persistence that she took me. My reason for starting though was rash; I wanted to be like Mommy. My mother played the violin often when I was growing up, she would play if for me when I was going to sleep. And when they were no longer there, I no longer wanted to be reminded of that violin. The violin that she played, the same violin that I was now holding in my hands.

Lucian was the one that encouraged me to start playing again. I was stubborn at first not wanting to, but he got sneaky, slipping biographies about composers such as Bach and Beethoven into my reading selections and playing violin music while he was cooking. He slowly started associating the violin with happy feelings through Neuro Linguistic Programing and by the time I was ten I wanted to start playing again. Though despite the questionable method in which he did this I was glad that I started playing again. It makes me feel connected to my parents, like I'm playing for them.

After I spent an hour practicing I placed the violin carefully back in its case clipping it closed. I stopped and stared at the cork bulletin board my eyes glancing over the pictures. Most of them were of me and Lucian, a few were postcards of places we had been, and a couple others were people we had met while traveling. One picture stood out among them though. It was a picture of me with my parents, one of the few that I actually had of them.

I was just around five years old; it was the last picture that was taken of us together. My father was smiling down at me and I was smiling up at him sticking out my tongue. My mother was laughing at us shaking her head. I'm pretty sure that Annie had taken the picture, a candid shot when we weren't looking. Sighing I let a small smile form at the corners of my lips at the memory. I still missed them.

My mind told me that I should start getting ready for school. An annoying thought bring me back to reality, my own personal internal alarm clock. I grabbed my shower stuff, shampoo, conditioner, the works, and walked out of my room closing the door softly behind me. Wrapped in a soft warm robe I traveled down the hallways quietly. Because I set my alarm an hour earlier than most people got up I was usually the first one to get to the showers.

The school showers were nothing to really talk about. They were basically those showers they had at a 24 hour fitness gyms, a really exspensive gym nonetheless still a gym, minus the lockers. I didn't particularly enjoy them, but I've had worse before.

But back to the original question of My Life.

It's normal, basically. I've had a lot of opportunities growing up that most kids wouldn't have. Those opportunities however didn't come without sacrifices. One of those sacrifices being my parents. If they were still around, I wouldn't have gotten the chance to travel as much as I have and it's because of those travels that I've gotten so many opportunities. I guess I have to thank Lucian for that one.

There are actually many things I have to thank Lucian for, many, many things. Things that I could never repay, which kind of sucks, because I hate owing people. But I'm going to owe Lucian for the rest of my life. Thank God that he won't hold it over my head, he's nice like that.

I have been to several different places, but I only consider myself to have lived in three. Thorton Colorado, Rio de Janeiro Brazil, and this small Japanese town 30 minutes from Nagasaki that I can't seem to ever remember the name of; a person would think I'd learn its name by now having already been here a month, but no I haven't. Anywhere else I've only passed through. The last 10 years of my life have basically been this great backpacking adventure, until now.

Seven months. That doesn't seem like a long time in reality, but to me… I haven't stayed in one place for seven months since I was six. I'm not exactly sure what to do with myself.

I pondered this in my head as I dried my hair. I think about a lot of things in the mornings as you've probably noticed by now. Sometimes my mind goes to places I don't want it to like today. This morning I woke up with a question plaguing my mind, it's a question I've thought of before, it's a stupid question. Okay, it's not really a stupid question; it's truly a very good question. I've been asking myself this question for ten years and had yet to come up with a plausible answer, which frustrates me to no end.

I can't for the life of me remember much of anything about my parents. I remember what they look like and I remember what they were like and a couple of vague facts about how they met and that they had no siblings, but nothing else. It's puzzling. I have no idea what kind of jobs they had. A kid should be able to know that right? Wrong, I did not know that, I've should have known that though.

My parents were constantly leaving for work. I saw them off every day before they left me with the nanny. Sometimes they worked over night and were gone a couple days at a time. Why didn't I ever question it? I'll tell you why, it was because I was young and naïve. But now that I'm older it brings questions to my mind. What did my parents do? How come they never talked about their pasts? And why did Lucian show up before we even knew they were missing?

I tried asking Lucian some of these questions when I was younger, but every time he was able to stealthily change the subject. It makes me wonder what he actually knows. But I could never crack him; eventually I just gave up on getting answers. After that I just watched him, he never gave anything away though.

'_It's a mystery_,' I sighed running my fingers through my now dry hair deciding that I wasn't going to dwell on it anymore. '_I'm just being paranoid. It's not like my parents lived some sort of double life. You're just making yourself crazy,'_ I said laughing at myself.

Trudging to my closet I took out the school uniform and slipped it on. I didn't really like this uniform; the skirt was too short for my tastes reaching about mid-thigh. I liked my skirts to brush just above my knee, call me modest if you like, I probably am. The rest of it wasn't so bad however. I liked the jacket and the black knee socks. I could do without the red neck tie or at least replace it with an actual red tie, and then I would love it.

Once I was dressed I went down to the dining hall to eat breakfast. The dining hall kind of reminded me of one of those old castle banquet halls that would be in Disney movies, like Sleeping Beauty or the Little Mermaid. The only difference was that instead of one long table with intricately carved chairs, there were plain simple wooden tables and matching chairs scattered about. East facing windows allowed for a lot of natural light in the morning and if you got there early enough a spectacular view of the sunrise.

That's something that made mornings bearable.

"Kat!"

I glanced around seeing who was calling me. In the corner by the cereal station I saw Yuuki and Yori. Yuuki was waving me over excitedly a huge smile on her face. '_How can she be so energetic in the mornings? It's exhausting. One would think she would be tired with her schedule,'_ muttering internally to myself I walked over to them. "Ohiyou," I greeted numbly still sleepy.

"Ohiyou, Katherine," Yori returned cordially. I like Yori. She was quiet. Quiet is good in the mornings.

Yuuki on the other hand was the opposite of quiet. "Hey Kat! How are you? Do you want to have breakfast with us? We just got up, well Yori just got up. I just got back from patrols," Yuuki rambled happily not noticing the effect her loud voice had on my ears.

'_My poor ears,'_ I whined to myself. Truthfully I like Yuuki. I really do, but sometimes she can be a little much. "I'm good Yuuki, still trying to wake up," I mumbled then let out an involuntary yawn. I stayed up too late last night with Ayame. When I finally got back to campus it was around one in the morning, it's my own fault though that I only got about four hours of sleep.

"Oh gomien," Yuuki quickly apologized lowering her voice to a whisper.

I waved her off tiredly, "It's okay, I'll be fine once I get some coffee." The both of them were quiet as I piled a plate with some toast, eggs, bacon, blue berry pancakes. I grabbed a cup of coffee and followed Yori and Yuuki to a table. "Yuuki, what happened to your neck?" I inspected curiously.

There was a small bandage on her smooth olive skin. I could tell that she tried to hide it, but she wasn't doing a very good job. Her collar that she carefully buttoned up to the top was just brushing the rim of the bandage. A scarf would have helped more than that. She started panicking immediately. "Oh this?" she pointed to the band aid, "I scratched myself on a tree branch while on patrols. It looks worse than it is."

Yori and I both shared a glance. "Okay," I shrugged digging into my pancakes. If she didn't want to tell me, whatever it wasn't really my business. "So Yori," I began changing the subject, "what's new with you?" Yuuki sighed with relief now that the conversation was off her.

"Nothing really. School, you know," she answered only pausing briefly before returning back to her breakfast. There was a brief moment of silence between us, me chewing on my eggs, Yori sipping her orange juice, and Yuuki brushing her bandaged self-consciously. "How do you like the newspaper?" Yori looked at me inquiringly.

"I don't even know why I joined," I groaned pinching my nose. I hated that club and was constantly berating myself since I joined it. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the constant hazing from Kasumi. If he didn't want me to join then he could've just said no. Why make me endure this mental torture? Instead of reacting negatively like any normal person would do, I just egged him on. Why? It just tended to make things worse. On a brighter note I am causing him as much headache as he is causing me.

"Is it really that bad?" Yuuki questioned concerned.

I shook my head, not at Yuuki's question, but the ridiculousness of her question. "Bad is a gross understatement," I answered sighing. The word to describe it would be…I don't think there is a word in any language to describe it. It's like sarcastic- comical-frustrating-awfulness that is the closest thing I have. Natsume and Hiyoki make it bearable though. My first impression of them was off; I thought they would be some of those crazy fan girl types, not saying that they aren't they are, but there not just fan girls. They can actually think for themselves.

Natsume turned out to be sporty, obnoxious, outgoing, funny, and a complete glutton. That girl was constantly eating; she hides food around campus like a squirrel. It's only because of her playing three varsity sports that she's not three-hundred and fifty pounds or one-hundred and fifty-eight point eight kilograms in the Japanese equivalent. She also has her own fan club; I only thought that the night class had a fan club. But apparently a lot of day class guys have major hots for her. She doesn't really notice any of them though, too infatuated with Ichijou Takuma, which I found out was the other guy I saw when I first met Aidou.

Hiyoki was more reserved balancing out Natsume's wild personality, but those two got into some hilarious arguments sometimes. Like last week Natsume had set her alarm for 5:45 a.m. and Hiyoki is the type of person you don't want to wake up in the morning. So when that alarm went off, she got up grabbed her books and uniform and chaired Natsume in their room. I only found out about this because she went to my room and crashed on my bed. Natsume ended up having to climb out the window tying the sheets together to make a long rope.

She is into painting and drawing and of course writing. Hiyoki also is a major prankster, I have fun with that. We kind of started a pranking war like the ones Lucian and I used to have a lot. The interesting thing about her though is that she does graffiti art. Yes, I'm friends with a vandal, never saw that coming.

My friends are pretty laughable here. I mean if I think about a vandal, a sporty fan girl, a girl that has so much energy it's like she drank seven espressos, another girl who is quiet and sarcastic, a moody, emo boy who is surprisingly into video games, and a gorgeous, awkward, blonde, playboy, genius who doesn't listen to music. If you put all these people in a room together I'm sure the world will implode, yet somehow I'm friends with all of them. I have no idea how that happened.

"Is the class rep still giving you trouble?" Yori questioned staring at me evenly. Her amber eyes seemed more unnerving today, if that was possible.

"I'm giving him just as much trouble as he's giving me," I replied disinterested. I didn't really want to dwell on this topic any more than I have. Especially since they're giving out new writing assignments today and with my luck I'm going to have another stupid one. The last piece was on something about allergic reactions. It sucked.

As if sensing my resolve not to talk about the topic anymore, Yuuki launched into a long rehashing of her night on patrols. I tuned out mostly giving the occasional nod telling her I was listening when I really wasn't. I just wanted this day to be over and it only just started.

The dreaded hour was nigh, the hour that I put in at the newspaper club. I should really just quit, but I'll be damned if I let Kasumi get to me. I refuse to give him the satisfaction. And I found out that the more determined I am the more it just pisses him off.

"Okay so most of the assignments have already been given out," he began smugly staring at me as he said this, "fortunately there is something for you Katherine. How does covering the new faculty housing renovation sound?"

I stared calmly at him or as calmly as I could, hoping to mask the fact that I was seething inside. '_Damn that smug smirk. I just want to slap him across the face. I definitely called it this morning, another stupid assignment.'_ "Cover what?" I questioned disbelieving.

Kasumi made a face like I just asked a completely moronic question. He rolled his eyes at me and mumbled something under his breath before composing himself with a rather forced smile. "The remodeling process," he drawled jadedly, "Is it environmentally safe? What are the financial ramifications? Should brick be considered, especially taking into account the historical architecture of the campus? I'm sure there's a lead somewhere."

I was quiet not saying anything. "Unless you don't want to do it," he started a smugness coming back into his features. It was like he was daring me to not do it. "You just take this time off and relax," my eyes probably narrowed a little into a glare, "maybe get a manicure."

"I'll do it," I said civilly, forcing a smile.

"Perhaps get a massage or aroma therapy, smell like a peach for a few days," he suggested spitefully under fake politeness.

"I said I'll do it, I'll cover the renovation," I countered with the same fake civility that he had.

"Okay then," he sighed crossing out his list. To anyone else the conversation was completely relaxed, though I knew that neither me nor him were relaxed. There was the tension in the air passing silently between us, as if we were trying to strangle each other with only our minds and sheer force of will. I imagined briefly what this would look like in a manga, both Kasumi and I would probably have that little angry symbol on out foreheads as we smiled at each other and Hiyoki and Natsume would have that sweat drop drawn on them. Shino and the teacher editor would have completely clueless expression, it was easy to tell they had no idea what was going on.

"Well now that that's all taken care off I'm off to grade papers. Kageyama you'll take care of the rest?" Kasumi and I broke from our intense staring contest to look at the teacher.

"Yes, Sensei," he told him cordially. The room was utterly silent as the teacher let himself out closing the door behind him. The silence was so loud. A rushing river in my ears. Hiyoki and Natsume glanced at each other worriedly before slipping from their seats and away from Kasumi and me. It wasn't a very pleasant atmosphere I could imagine. I didn't really want to be here either. Shino paid no attention to anything pushing her glasses up her nose, and then retreating to her desk. I stood up too stretching my legs, while Kasumi went to check over the layout for the paper.

I stared at this back, eyes narrowed. "Is something wrong Taylor-san?" I snapped out of whatever thoughts I was having a pleasant smile forming at the corners of my mouth, while fighting the urge to grimace at the san suffix.

"No nothing's wrong," I assured him, "I love this assignment. "

"Glad to hear it."

I glared when he turned around again so he couldn't see my face. "I'm going to write the greatest piece on remodeling that you have ever read and next week when you inevitably give me the piece on the new septic tanks I'm going to be just as thrilled," I told him, my voice still cheerful and calm.

"I like a team player," he commented.

"And no matter how many crappy, useless assignment you throw at me, I'm not going to quit and I'm not going to back down. So you can take a couple minutes and think about that no matter how awful you are at the end of the year on my high school transcript it will say that I was on this paper. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some research to do on early architecture," I finished. By the tenseness of his shoulders and the tightness of his jaw I could tell that my words indeed got to him.

"A thousand words on my desk by Monday," he ordered an actual glare forming on his face.

I stopped at the door I was in the process of walking out of and turned to him. "Aye aye, Chief," I fake saluted before slipping out into the hall.

His angered expression calmed me down a little as I walked. It was so stressful for us to be in the same room together, I was amazed that we haven't actually come to physical blows by now. It might be because he was raise to be a gentleman or it might be because he has a better hold on his temper than I do. I knew that if we should ever come to physical violence that I would probably win and that's not me just talking myself up either. It's the truth.

As a child Lucian taught me Krava Maga, a form of Israeli Ju-jitsu. His excuse was something along the lines of, "I'm not always going to be able to save your ass, so you need to be able to defend yourself." I've never really had to use it, Thank God, but I knew that if push came to shove that I could.

Stopping at a set of large wooden door I paused, thinking about it. There was a time where I almost had to use it. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life, also one of the most physically painful.

_**The room was dark and musty. I couldn't see two feet in front of myself, but I knew that I was restrained. The course ropes rubbed against my wrists and ankles irritating the skin as I wiggled around. There was a gag in my mouth preventing me from talking or crying out for help. I now know how a horse feels with a bit in its mouth. The real question though was how did I get here?**_

_**The last thing I remember was strolling down the street, taking in the sights of Moscow in the late spring. Then someone grabbed me from an alleyway and put a cloth over my mouth. I tried to fight back, but I panicked there was a strong smell wafting from the rag making me dizzy. I blacked out shortly after that. The cloth must have been soaked in chloroform, or that chemical that knocks people out. I've never actually looked into it, but I remember hearing of it a lot on TV shows.**_

_**Now I was wide awake my eyes darting around terrified, even though I couldn't see anything. Where the hell was I? Where is Lucian? Does he know I'm missing? How long have I been out? These questions whizzed through my mind as my heartbeat began to speed up. One thing was painful obvious to me despite everything. I've been kidnapped.**_

_**I thought kidnappings only happened in the movies, or to people with a lot of money, or a lot of connections. Lucian didn't have any of those, okay well maybe a few paper connections, but not serious enough to warrant a kidnapping. If this was for ransom… they might as well but a bullet through my head, they weren't going to get anywhere. **_

_**Tears started to prick in my eyes as I thought about it. I don't want to die. I'm too young; I'm only thirteen, for God sake. '**_No. I will not cry,_**' I told myself determined. If I was going to die I would at least retain any dignity I could, however small it was.**_

"_**Kit?"**_

_**I recognized that voice, it was Lucian's. Even his little nickname for me gave it away. "Kit, are you awake?" Since I couldn't talk I did the close thing I could do to answer was making an 'mmmhm' sound. I heard him sigh with relief. It sounded like he was sitting about two feet to my left, probably bound in the same way that I was, except for the gag. "Are you hurt?" 'mmmhn' He was silent for a few seconds processing. "Everything's going to be okay. I'll get us out of this; I just need you to stay calm. Can you do that for me?" He questioned? 'mmmhm' sounds like the easiest thing ever, not. I am freaking out.**_

_**I took a deep breath in hopes to calm myself down. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. After a few deep breaths I was able to compose myself as much as possible. That composure crumbled when the lights flickered on blinding me. **_

_**Lucian and I blinked against the sudden harsh change, our eyes having been adjusted to the darkness for a few hours. The first thing I was able to see was a large metal table sitting in front of us; it was the only other furniture in the room besides the chairs that we were sitting on. What was on the table was what made my stomach bottom out. A collection of knives. Shit. **_

_**Even if I never watched TV or saw anything remotely similar, it didn't take a genius to know that those knives were here to be used. There was one thing I didn't do and that was torture. I'd opt for the bullet through my forehead, being blown up, anything as long as it was quick. I had absolutely zero tolerance for physical pain. **_

_**My eyes darted around the rest of the room, maybe I could figure out what we were in. Cement walls, floors and pillars, no windows. A warehouse maybe? There was nothing else I could see and I didn't hear any noises like cars or people, which meant we were in a secluded area. No one around to hear our screams.**_

_**I scanned over the knives from where I sat seeing if I could recognize any of them. There was meat cleaver, a Bowie knife, a couple of saws… and a bread knife? Why would they need a bread knife? What kind of sick, twisted mind even thinks about hacking people up with a bread knife? Actually it looks like it could saw through flesh pretty easily. '**_Eww. What the hell am I thinking about? Morbid much, Katherine?_**' I questioned myself sarcastically. There was also a bunch of tinier knives, like surgeon tools, that I didn't know the name of. The smaller knives seem much less threatening. I knew I was never going to be able to look at a bread knife the same way again if we got out of here. That much I was sure of.**_

_**I watched as a man walked out from behind us, where the light switch was located. He had a cruel face, a snake, with beady, soulless eyes. I couldn't help comparing him to a rattle snake, but even rattle snakes are less terrifying than this person. He had extremely pale skin, unnaturally pale. It was as if he was sick or slowly dying, rotting away until he was nothing but a skeleton. **_

_**My nose crinkled up at him. He smelled awful, like a sewer rat. He looked like a rat or a mole. I wish this was Whack-A-Mole so I could just crush him over and over again with a hammer. Lucian tensed next to me, his jaw clenched in anger. The rat saw this and his lips pulled up into a viscous smile. I grimaced at the sight, his gums were black and his tongue was some unnatural bluish color. That has to be what mouth cancer looks like, a lesson not to smoke. **_

_**I swear a room full of mirrors would crack if this scumbag was near them. He was hideous. The rat stared at me next, causing my muscle to constrict. He cocked his head to the right curiously as if what he was seeing was puzzling. His voice came out a few seconds later, a horrid sound like nails being dragged across a chalkboard. I couldn't understand what he said, speaking in Russian, but Lucian did. **_

_**Lucian calmly snarled back a response through gritted teeth. My eyes didn't leave the man standing in front of us. Lucian's retort was undoubtedly amusing to the rat because he burst out into hysterical laughter. This laughter made my stomach do flips, I felt like I was about to throw up. **_

"_**She's a quiet a pretty girl ain't she?" I growled as his finger's brushed my hair from my face. If only I didn't have this gag in my mouth I would bite him, or spit in his face. At the moment I didn't really care if it would make things worse, I just wanted this rat to stop touching me. **_

"_**DO NOT TOUCH HER," Lucian snarled at him. The venom in his voice made even me shiver. **_

_**The rat pulled his hand back and stared at Lucian. "It seems as if I hit a nerve," he chuckled walking to the table. I watched cautiously as his fingers glided over the knives. '**_Please pick a tiny one_**' I prayed hopeful. He picked up one of the small knives, "Girl, what do you think of this?" he inquired holding it up so I could see. **_

_**It had a small sharp blade and tiny black handle. I'm sure that he could do a lot of damage with that knife, but it's seemed a lot less harmful than the others. The rat chuckled at me, "That's right you're gaged you can't answer." He crossed the distance between us and untied the gag. Then he held the knife in front of my face. "What do you think, sweetheart?" he whispered in my ear.**_

"_**You're a sadistic bastard," I spat out viciously. **_

_**The rat laughed again as he walked back in front of me. "I like this one," he pointed at me with another cruel smile, "she's got fire."**_

_**This little scene was interrupted when another man walked into the room to talk to the rat. He didn't seem as bad, not as hideous or vile, nevertheless still cruel. He still had those dark soulless eyes. I watched as they conversed in Russian again the rat glanced back towards the door and nodded. "I'm going to have to deal with something. But you two sit tight, we'll pick this up when I get back." He moved put the knife back on the table, but paused. "Could you hold this for me, sweetie?" My hands were literally tied to the armrests of the chair, I couldn't hold anything.**_

_**Upon seeing my expression he smiled again. "Oh, that's right you can't. Let me help you with that then," he stabbed the knife into my right thigh. I let out a scream not being able to keep it in, tears started to pour over my eyes. The rat let out a sadistic laugh taking some sort of sick enjoyment in my pain then walked out of the room with the other rat. **_

"_**Kit, just breathe through the pain. Try to move your chair so I can pull it out," Lucian told me trying to comfort me. I nodded taking deep breaths as I wiggled in my seat to get to him. Unlike me Lucian's hands were tied behind his back so he could easily pull the knife out. I managed to turn my chair ninety degrees so Lucian could grab the knife.**_

_**I bit down on my tongue as to not let out a scream as he pulled it out. The loss of blood was making me a little lightheaded. I glanced down at my lap. Big mistake. The blood was seeping out of the wound, a dark red color staining my jeans. Yep, I'm definitely throwing up today. **_

_**Lucian quickly sliced through the ropes on his hand and ankles, when he heard footsteps. "I'm going to have to put it back in," he whispered to me.**_

"_**What?!" I shouted/whispered back? I don't want to get stabbed again! That was not pleasant. Hell NO!**_

"_**Look, do you want to get out of here?" I nodded. "Then you have to trust me. If they come back in here and see the knife missing from your leg they're going to start asking questions."**_

"_**Fine," I hissed, "just put it back in really quickly. I'm about to throw up."**_

_**Lucian promptly did what I said putting a hand over my mouth to muffle any sound the escaped my lips. "One more thing, when they come back in keep your eyes closed and your head down until I tell you to, okay?" I nodded tears welling up in my eyes again. Lucian gave me a reassuring smile before moving my chair around the right way and sitting down in his.**_

_**When the door opened I squeezed my eyes shut and bent my head down. Whatever was going to happen, I really didn't want to witness it. One thing was clear though, Lucian was going to kick some serious ass. There was a moment of silence and I almost opened my eyes to see what was happening, before a loud crash sounded. There was a tinkling of metal like a bunch of knives falling on cement.**_

_**CRACK.**_

_**I winced a little at the sound of a bone snapping. I was unsure if it was Lucian or someone else's. There were some more footsteps rushing into the room. That was the last thing I heard before strangled screams broke out. '**_Oh I am definitely going to have some nightmares about this for a couple of months._**' There were a few more crashing sounds and something wet splattered across my face. I didn't dare open my eyes though. **_

_**After what seemed like five minutes the screams had died down into complete silence again. I dared not to breathe. Is Lucian okay? Is he dead? My muscles were tense, just waiting for my end. "Kit," I heard Lucian talking to me, "Kit, it's okay, you can open your eyes now."**_

_**I slowly opened my eyes, staring into Lucian's face. His hazel eyes were scanning over my face with worry. My fingers brushed the wet substance on my cheek and I stared at the red that had smeared onto my fingers. "Here let's get the knife out of your leg," he said taking hold of the handle. I quickly bit my tongue again bracing for the pain. "We're going to have to put some pressure on that. Hold on," he said ripping a piece of fabric off of something and wrapping it securely around my thigh over the wound. He sliced the ropes off my wrists and ankles and swung me onto his back. "Can you hold on okay?"**_

"_**Yes," I answered my voice hoarse. He tightened his grip on me and walked out of the room.**_

_**I was right about us being in a warehouse and also about it being secluded. Lucian was carrying me on his back through a dense forest, my leg was still bleeding. "I feel like we were just in some action movie," I commented off-handedly trying to lighten the heavy cloud that had fallen over us. **_

"_**Taken?"**_

"_**Die Hard," I answered tightening my arms around Lucian's neck. **_

"_**Yippie ki yay," Lucian chuckled to himself. **_

"_**Mother fucker," I finished.**_

"_**What did I tell you about that?" Lucian questioned twisting his head to look at me.**_

_**I stared back down, "Sorry." Lucian didn't particularly like it when I cursed. He raised me not to curse, however as I got older it became harder and harder to enforce that rule. **_

_**He sighed quietly to himself. "I guess I can make an exception, considering," he conceded. I smiled at him snuggling into his back. "Don't fall asleep back there," he warned me, "If you do I'm going to make you walk."**_

"_**Okay," I mumbled, "I won't." We were both quite again for a couple of minutes. "Lucian?"**_

"_**Yeah?"**_

"_**Why did those people take us?" I questioned looking over my shoulder from where we had come. It didn't make any sense to me.**_

_**He shrugged. "Who knows? It seemed like those guys was utter lunatics," Lucian answered some anger seeping back into his voice, not at me, but at them. **_

"_**Am I going to be okay?" Lucian glanced at me over his shoulder quizzically. "I mean, I'm not going to lose a leg or anything right?" I elaborated. **_

"_**No," he shook his head, "but we still need to get you to the hospital. You'll probably have to get some stitches, antibiotics, and a blood transfusion. You won't lose your leg though."**_

"_**Oh."**_

_**Silence engulfed us again as we trekked through the trees. Eventually we found a road and were able to hitch hike to the nearest hospital. The woman that stopped the car for us looked incredibly concerned. I imagined we must of looked a sight, both of us covered in blood and a with a rag tied over a knife wound. Amazing that anyone stopped their cars for us. **_

_**Once we got to the hospital it was just as Lucian predicted; stitches, antibiotics, and a blood transfusion. I was on crutches for a couple weeks after that. The knife was lucky enough not to have punctured any major arteries, if that had happened there was no doubt about it. I would've bleed out and died. Ever since that incident though, Lucian had been extremely protective of me. I get it. When some you care about is kidnapped you kind of want to keep a close watch on that person, make sure it doesn't happen again. I don't want it to happen again either. **_

I shook myself from my memories staring down at my right leg. There just above my black sock was a small scar. That is the souvenir I have from Russia. I didn't really want that souvenir, nope didn't want it at all, but that's not to say that nothing good came out of the experience. It was because of that that I stepped up my Krava Maga training. I refused to ever let something like that happen to me again and it's not going to as long as I can help it. There are only so many traumatic experiences a person can handle in his or her life. I've had too many already.

My eyes scanned through the books in the library, looking for things that would help me on my paper. '_Remodeling,'_ I groaned irritated. That sounds so boring. I didn't really know how to make the topic interesting. I had to make this paper amazing though. If I did it could possibly get the teacher editor to notice and have Kasumi give me better topics to write about.

I picked up a couple of books stacking them on top of each other and walked over to a quiet isolated study table towards the back and sat down and started reading, while taking notes. I'm not sure how long I was there, or how long it was before I fell asleep. But I became aware that I was asleep when I woke up to someone shaking me back and forth.

I pried my eyes open slowly. The sight that met me though had me jolting awake in surprise. There stand above me; his face only about 6 inches away from mine was Aidou. "Holy shit," I cursed backing away from him abruptly. It might have been too abrupt because the sudden momentum flung me back in my chair onto the floor.

CRASH.

"Ow," I moaned rubbing my head her I had hit it on the floor. "Damn it Aidou, haven't you ever heard of personal boundaries?" I snapped. The blonde was standing by the table looking down at me in surprise and amusement. He was trying to hold back laughter I could tell.

After taking a moment to composing himself he asked me in a serious voice, "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Do you have any idea how loud your voice is? And judging by your face I'm guessing it's late," I snipped annoyed standing up. I bent down and right back the chair.

"Late? It's 4:30 in the morning."

I sat back down at the chair cleaning up my books and papers. I paused briefly… 4:30? The last time I looked at the clock it was like 5:30 at night. I just had myself and eleven hour nap! That's not a nap that fucking coma. I look up at Aidou; his blue eyes were narrowed like he was angry. What does he have to be angry about?

"Do you have any idea what would have happened to you if anyone else had found you? You would've been—" Aidou started then brusquely cutting off. His blue eyes widened slightly like he was just about to say something he shouldn't. I started at him curiously.

"I would've been what?" I asked.

My question snapped him out of whatever trance he was in, "You would've been in a lot of trouble."

I groaned rubbing my neck. "Remind me never to fall asleep at a desk again;" I told him, "I got this horrible creak in my neck. I'm going to need a jackhammer to get this out."

"Kit, are you listening to me?" he demanded his voice filling up with anger again.

I sighed and stopped massaging my neck to look at the blonde haired boy. "Look Aidou," I started, "it's not my fault that I'm here at this time. I just woke up from a fucking eleven hour coma nap at a library desk. Cut me some slack."

He groaned to himself running his fingers through his hair. "You're so infuriating sometimes," he grumbled.

"You, Kageyama, and my uncle should join a club. You guys could have Tee-shirts printed out and eat little tiny steak kabobs," I told him sarcastically patting his arm. He was quiet for a sometime while I packed the books up sliding some into my backpack and hoisting the rest in my arms.

"Come on," he ordered gruffly.

"Come on where?"

Aidou sighed grabbing my wrist. "I'm taking you back to your room," he informed me. I didn't particularly enjoy the harshness in his voice or how tense he seemed. Why was he so angry all of the sudden? It was almost as if he and Zero had temporarily switched bodies. In fact I could have sworn that's what had happened, I have never seen Aidou this overly protective before. It was kind of creeping me out.

"Why?" I demanded as he tugged me along through the corridor. "Is it so the scary monsters don't get me?" I questioned playfully. My question only seemed to make him tenser. I sighed, "Aidou, I haven't been afraid of monsters since I was five. This is completely unnecessary."

He stopped walking and dropped my hand, "Fine. Walk back by yourself."

"I will." My firm voice fell flat though when I walked smack into a wall. I apparently wasn't fully awake yet. I heard Aidou sigh again from behind me as I rubbed my forehead. Suddenly I was lifted from the ground. "What the hell are you doing?!" I shouted incensed.

Aidou had scooped me up into his arms, one arm under my knees and the other around my shoulders. I was flopping around like a fish out of water trying to get him to let me go. "Would you stop thrashing around," he complained his grip tightening, "you're already heavy enough as it is. You're going to make me drop you."

"How dare you," I snapped, "you never hear me making fun of your hair!"

He paused to look at me, "What's wrong with my hair?"

"It's all crazy. It's like your cousin messed it up with a vacuum cleaner hose while you were sleeping," I informed him. Truthful it really did look like that, but it suited him nicely. I'm never going to tell him that though, especially when he's being annoying as hell. Aidou was quiet for a minute before bursting out into laughter.

"You're something else Kit," he said shaking his head.

I waved it off. "Yeah, yeah I'm fucking hilarious. Now I believe you were in the process of carrying me back to my room, unless you've decided to let me walk. If that's not the case just wake me when we get there. It is room 136," I instructed tiredly letting out a yawn. My muscles relaxed instantaneously as my head fell against his shoulder. If I had been awake as he carried me I might have noticed the pair of eyes that watched us in the courtyard as he carried me up to my room. It was bound to come back and bite me in the ass later.

So yeah I guess this is basically my life. Oh and don't even bother complaining about how describing my day like this is not telling you what my life is. That is too much of a loaded question to be able to answer it simply. You don't believe then try it yourself.

**Author's Note:**

**Hey guys! Here is the next chapter for IDDV. I originally started this off not having any idea what to write, then I listened to a Birdy song and everything worked out. So there's a lesson for you, "If you're ever stumped listen to Birdy. Birdy is amazing."**

**I want to thank all of you who have review, followed, or ****Favorited. I can say that from here on out the story will most likely go further away from the original story line. But if you want to know when this chapter takes place its the day after Zero drinks Yuuki's blood (hence the bandage on Yuuki's neck). **

**I will also go into Hiyoki and Katherine's prank war. So if you guys have any ideas of fun pranks just leave them in the reviews, I'll throw a couple of them in there. Also the flash back scene, which takes up most of this chapter, is the main reason Lucian didn't take Katherine with him to Iraq. I might redo the flash back later in Lucian's perspective once the story gets going.**

**So if you like this chapter please review or follow or favorite, any of those are good, but I like reviews best.**

**Please Review**

**\/ **


	8. (6) Midnight Gumbo

**I Don't Date Vampire  
Chapter 6  
**_**"Midnight Gumbo"**_

Aidou stared down at the girl in his arms. He didn't understand how she could have fallen asleep so quickly. '_It's definitely not normal,'_ he considered, '_but she isn't either.'_ She looked so peaceful sleeping like she didn't have a care in the world. And Katherine had had the same expression in the library when he had found her.

_**Aidou walked silently through campus. He was sick of classes and those idiotic lectures on bridging the gap between humans and vampires. Repeatedly he would slip out of class when he got bored. He had been trying to do it less often considering what had happened the last time he had slipped out, but tonight his attention span was shot. **_

_**Pulling opening one of large wooden doors he strode into the library, figuring that would be a good place to hide out until classes ended. The funny thing though was that even while he was ridiculously smart Aidou didn't really start reading until he met Katherine. Before that he would only read things that pertain to school, a lot of boring subjects like math and science. But when he saw Katherine's love for literature he decided that he would give it a shot. **_

_**And give it a shot he did. After he first picked up one of her books he was pretty much hooked. Aidou would often question himself on why he never read before because it could have saved him from a lot of boredom. He now understood why Ichijou was so addicted to manga. Ever since then he always had a book with him and Katherine would habitually give him one of her books to read.**_

_**Aidou scanned through the titles absentmindedly before settling on one entitled 'Screwtape Letters'. He remembers Katherine telling him it was a series of letters written from one demon to another. It was written by a Christian writer by the name of C.S. Lewis who is most famous for his series the Chronicles of Narnia. Katherine had spent at least twenty minutes on describing his work and telling him why he was one of her favorite authors. **_

_**A small smile pulled at the corner of his lips as he remembered their conversations. Most of the time they spent together was just reading, but the rest of it was sorting through music and talking about a bunch of pointless topics. She never did mention her parents to him or to anyone for that matter, not even Ayame. He'd be lying if he didn't say that he was dying with curiosity to know, she never even said their names. **_

_**He pondered this in his head as he rounded a bookshelf. '**_It's probably not a pleasant subject to bring up,_**' Aidou told himself. The sight that met his eyes on the other side of the bookshelf caused him stopped dead in his tracks. '**_Think of the devil and she hath doth appear,_**' he clamped his mouth shut and his eyes narrowed.**_

'What the hell is she doing here this late?_**' he questioned slowly starting to fill with anger. There not four feet away from him was Katherine. She was sitting at a table with books and paper scattered about and a mechanical pencil lying by her hand, probably fell from her grip when she dozed off. The girl was cradling her head in her arms sleeping peacefully. The moonlight from the window casted its glow on her golden waves illuminating the colors of red in her hair giving her this sort of halo effect. **_

_**She was unaware, her guard was entirely down. Aidou's mind all the sudden started running scenarios through his mind about what would have happened if someone else had come across her and not him. She could have been killed. '**_Stupid, stupid girl. Baka,_**' he muttered to himself walking over to her. It bothered him that she could be so idiotic as to fall asleep in a school filled with vampires, '**_Okay she didn't know the night class was vampires, but still…_**' **_

_**He place he hand on her shoulder and gruffly started to shake her awake. She groaned in annoyance and slapped his hand away. Aidou had thought that she was awake but he realized seconds later that she was still sleeping when she snuggled back into her arms again. He leaned down and shook her again this time harsher than before. **_

_**Katherine slowly opened her eyes to look at him. The olive green was dulled with sleep and confusion as she took in her surroundings. Suddenly recognition came into play causing her eyes to widen, "Holy shit." Aidou had to hold back a laugh when she flipped back in the chair.**_

_**He momentarily forgot about how he was angry at her. She just looked so… dare he say cute, as she rubbed her head she had smacked on the floor. "Damn it Aidou, haven't you ever heard of personal boundaries?" Katherine hissed at him.**_

_**Aidou was quiet for a second trying to remember what he was going to say to her. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" he questioned. **_

"_**Do you have any idea how loud your voice is? And judging by your face I'm guessing it's late," she replied stand up and picking up the toppled over chair. Aidou watched as she sat down and started cleaning up the books and papers. He got the sudden urge to strangle her, '**_How dare she talk to me like that. I was only trying to be nice._**' **_

"_**Late? It's 4:30 in the morning," he informed her. Katherine paused at that, her eye brows scrunched together in thought. Some of the worry he felt came back into him making him angry. "Do you have any idea what would have happened to you had anyone else found you? You would've been—" Aidou cut off. He had been one word away from telling her that she would've been killed, which would have led to the night class are vampires conversation. **_

_**Katherine stared at him confused. "I would've been what?" she questioned. Her olive eyes were boring into him suspiciously.**_

_**Aidou attention snapped back to the girl. "You would've been in a lot of trouble," he said after clearing his throat. '**_Nice save, Hanabusa,_**' he congratulated himself giving a metaphorical pat on the back. Katherine had rolled her eyes at his answer; she didn't really care if she had gotten into trouble.**_

"_**Remind me never to fall asleep at a desk again," she groaned massaging her neck, "I've got the horrible creak in my neck. I'm going to need a jackhammer to get this out."**_

"_**Kit, are you listening to me?" Aidou questioned slamming his hands on the desk. **_

_**Katherine jumped, startled at the sudden noise. She stopped massaging her neck and sighed. "Look Aidou," she drawled annoyed, "It's not my fault that I'm here at this time. I just woke up from a fucking eleven hour coma nap at a library desk. Cut me some slack." **_

'Eleven hours? She had been sleeping there for elven hours?_**' He paused processing what she was saying. Aidou considered this, '**_If she had been sleeping for elven hours that meant that she fell asleep around 5:30 and was here the whole time. How did no one else come across her in that time?_**'**_

Even now Aidou tried to figure it out as he carried her from campus. '_It had to be just dumb luck that she wasn't discovered_,' he shook his head. Another thing bothered him though; she said she didn't believe in monsters. Of course she didn't know that she was saying this to a vampire, who many would actually call a monster, but it was strange. It was especially strange how she guessed why he walking her back to her room, even while she was being sarcastic she was still spot on.

Katherine shivered a little as breeze blew past them and snuggled closer to Aidou. The blonde vampire glanced down at the girl as she did this. She was clutching books in one arm and gripping on to the front of his jacket with the other. There were Goosebumps on her knees and her nose was red from the cold, she was still out of it however.

Aidou managed to carry her to her room, but was unable to wake her up again. '_Damn, she sleeps like the dead,'_ he was supporting her weight with his arm wrapped securely around her waist. He glanced over the lock on the door. '_She has to have a key on her somewhere,'_ his eyes fell to the colorful knitted backpack on her shoulders.

Carefully, he moved her so he could search through the bag. Typically Aidou wouldn't dream of going through a woman's things, it was against how he was raised, but this was different. Said girl was out cold and he couldn't just leave her in the hallway by her door. That would be wrong and even worse than going through her bag. His fingers touched a metal object which he fished out seeing that it was the key.

After opening the door he picked her back up again and walked over the threshold. Katherine's room was a lot different from the one he had back at the night dormitory. He expected that though. The night class dorms were fancier. But the thing that jumped out at him as he took in the surrounding what that Katherine was very neat like Kain.

The floor was completely devoid of clothing, unlike Ichijou's room, and everything was organized accordingly. Her room was actually kind of plain as if she was expecting to move out any day. Despite this Aidou could see her personality in the few belongings that she did have. The shelves were filled with books and CD's. And a bright colorful patched rug gave color to the plain white walls, curtains, and sheets.

He laid her down on the bed gently, pulling back the covers and slipping her under them. Aidou took the books from her hands, slipped the backpack from her shoulders and set them on the desk next to her laptop. Finally he set the key down on the dresser next to a white iPod classic hooked up to the charger. After everything was put back into place Aidou grabbed his book and made his way out of the room silently.

The door was just about to shut behind him when footsteps alerted him to someone else's soon to be presence. He stared down the hall making out the slim figure of Yuuki Kurosu. '_Shit,'_ he panicked. There were two ways this could end for him. One, he could just shut Katherine's door and get caught by Yuuki which would lead to a punishment from Kaname. Or two, he could hide in Katherine's room until Yuuki was gone and disappear before Katherine woke up. He went with option two.

Aidou stayed by the door quietly listening for Yuuki's footsteps. Each one made an echoing thud in his skull.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

He held his breath when he heard her stop walking in front of Katherine's door. For a second he was worried that she had seen him. Then his fears were extinguished when a door creaked open and shut again softly.

'_Yuuki's room is right across the hall from Katherine's,'_ Aidou made a mental note of that. That information might have stopped him from carrying Katherine to her room. It was going to be tricky for him to get out of there unseen.

Aidou waited patiently for about 30 seconds before trying to leave again. He cracked the door opened a little and peered through to Yuuki's door. There was really no movement that he could hear from the other room, but his hearing might be a bit off however because his heartbeat was drowning out the majority of the noise.

Deciding to risk it, Aidou stepped out into the hallway again. However the second he stepped foot outside of Katherine's room there was a click of someone turning a doorknob to Yuuki's room. He resisted the urge to groan as he slipped back into Katherine's room again. '_Damn it,'_ he cursed. With the way everything was turning out heaven forbid if he ever did something selfless again.

Katherine stirred in her sleep her eyes squinting at the early morning sunshine glaring in her eyes. Her eyes took in the scene before her with curiosity. "What are you doing here?" She questioned sitting up.

Aidou's eyes darted to the girl who had just woken up from her nap; coma would be a better term for it. He was sitting on a wooden desk chair, quietly reading the book he had picked up from the library having given up trying to sneak out of the girls dorms after the fourth try. "I carried you," the blonde answered, "don't you remember?"

"Yes, but I thought you would've gone back to your dorm by now," she retorted still trying to figure out why he was there.

"Believe me I was planning on it, but I'm kind of trapped in here," he explained exasperated, "When I tried to leave Yuuki came back to her room and I had to hide in here. You never mentioned that she was across the hall from you. The second time it was Sayori Wakaba and the third was Yuuki again. After that ever other damn girl started waking up—"Katherine burst into a fit of laughter not being able to hold it in anymore.

"Oh that is priceless," she sighed shaking her head still laughing, "It sucks to be you." Once she was able to compose herself again she stared at him seriously. "You didn't do anything weird while I was sleeping did you?"

"No."

Katherine studied him for a second before yawning. Then she rubbed some of the crud from her eyes. '_I must look a sight,'_ she pondered looking at Aidou feeling a bit self-conscious. She had never wanted anyone to see her when she first woke up. Now not only has that happened, but said person just happens to be the school 'idol'. "I'm choosing to believe you mostly because I have no evidence you accuse you otherwise," she told him twisting her hair up into a messy bun.

Aidou nodded. The atmosphere was awkward between them. "Your room is," he began looking around not really sure of how to describe it.

"Bare," Katherine suggested. He nodded again. "Yeah, I'm not really that into stuff. Also it's kind of hard to take a lot of things with me," she shrugged.

"I can imagine. Where exactly have you've been? Just curious."

"Where haven't I've been? But there's pictures over there," she pointed to the cork bulletin board. Aidou turned in the chair to look where Katherine was pointing, he hadn't had noticed the pictures before. He glanced over the pictures curiously.

There he saw the different stages of Katherine smiling back at him. There were popular landmarks behind her like the Taj Mahal, Mount Fuji, Big Ben, The Eiffel tower, the Statue of Liberty, and the Red square. There were some post cards for the Berliner Dom, the roman coliseum, and the Christ statue in Rio. There were also some other photos that were pretty funny, one was of Katherine looking as if she was about to eat a scorpion. Another one was a bus ad of a spa where there were the figures of two women in robes printed on the window to make it look like the passengers were those women. Katherine was sitting where her face was connected to this figure looking at her nails, while there was man sitting in the other one where the woman was stroking her leg up in the air.

Aidou assumed that that man was her uncle because he was a reoccurring figure in most of the pictures. He had raven black hair with light hazel eyes that looked almost gray. He had defined, chiseled jaw and was possibly one of the few humans that would be considered handsome. Aidou though couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen that face somewhere before, it was familiar to him somehow.

In the top right corner of the board there was one picture that wasn't like the rest. There were three figures in the picture, one of them being Katherine. She looked to be about five years old and the other two was a man and a woman. The woman's appearance was miraculously similar to Katherine's, especially if he compared that picture to the girl who was sitting on the bed not three feet away from him. All three of them were laughing, not looking at the camera, and Aidou could easily feel the love between them.

"Your parents?" Katherine looked to where Aidou was pointing seeing the picture of her with her parents at the kitchen table. She nodded. "What happened to them?" The question left his mouth before he could stop himself. He looked at Katherine worried that it may have upset her, "Umm… you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Katherine waved off his worry though. "No it's fine," she told him, "I'm sure you were bound to ask sooner or later. It's what forensics specialist refer to as a 'cold case'. They're both still considered a missing person's report."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Katherine waved off his apology, "I was really too young to remember them anyways. They disappear about two months after that picture was taken. But then Luke took me in and all the crazy adventures started." Aidou glanced back at the picture his eyebrows scrunched together in thought. In all of these pictures Katherine was smiling just as happily as she was with her parents. He wondered how she could have remained so cheerful through everything; even now she didn't seem greatly affected by the subject of her parents.

"Well I should probably get ready for school," she threw the covers off her standing from the bed. Katherine looked down at the school uniform she was wearing with a frown, '_It's wrinkled.'_ It was a good thing that she had another uniform jacket and a few more skirts and shirts so she wasn't really inconvenienced much. She walked over to the closet to rummage for another clean uniform. "Hey Aidou can you hand me a pair of socks?" She pointed to the top drawer of the dresser.

Aidou stood up from the chair setting down his book. He crossed over to the dresser and opened the top drawer looking for Katherine's socks. However upon opening said drawer he realized that not only were Katherine's sock in said drawer, but also were her underwear and bras. A sudden heat flowed to Aidou's face as he stared at a white lacey pair of panties with a matching bra.

Seeing these things his imagination couldn't help coming up with mental pictures of what Katherine would look like in these. He furiously shook his head trying to dispel those thoughts from his head. "Here," he said handing her a black pair of knee socks and quickly closing the drawer.

"Hey thanks, not just for the socks but for carrying me here last ni—"Katherine cut off studying Aidou's face. "What's wrong? You look all flushed are you sick?" She put her hand up to his forehead feeling for a fever. Under any other circumstances Aidou would have thought the question to be hilarious, the idea of a vampire getting sick… it was just ludicrous, but because of the reason his face was flushed he found that her question just annoyed him.

"I'm fine," Aidou brushed her palm away lightly.

Katherine stared at him curiously before something struck her down, metaphorically of course, like a giant anvil falling from the sky. She was Wyllie the coyote and Aidou was the cannon in which she shot out the anvil that she was aiming for the Roadrunner, but inevitably tilted up and backfired on her. There was obvious no way to salvage this situation. Might as well tell the truth that she momentarily forgot he was a guy and that her underwear and socks were kept in the same drawer.

"It just got really awkward in here," she observed laughing like a moron her face beat red.

Aidou watched her laughing with her face in her hand. She looked mortified. "You can say that again," he said.

"It just got really awkward in here," she repeated hoping to dispel some of the said awkwardness. It seemed to work when Aidou started to laugh. "I mean… damn it. This has got to be the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to me or at least the second most embarrassing thing. It's like a tie between this and the time I went bowling with Luke and knocked down all the people in the snack line with a bowling ball," she rambled.

The both of them laughed for a while which was just fine for the two of them. Anything to drown out the awkward silence was great. It also lightened the dark cloud that had fallen over them at the mention of Katherine's parents. "Well I'm definitely not going to ask you to hand me socks anymore," Katherine said her laughter dying down.

"Good plan," Aidou remarked with the utmost serious face he could muster. They stared at each other biting back laughter before they lost it again in a fit of hysteria.

"This is definitely staying between us. I swear you tell anyone else I will kick your ass," Katherine's threat had little effect. It didn't sound dangerous or terrifying at all. She had only really managed to get it out between breaths. Aidou nodded back in agreement not being able to respond with words. "I'm going to take a shower now, I'll be back," she informed him grabbing some underwear from the dresser then taking the rest of her clothes and shower stuff leaving him the room by himself.

When Katherine returned her room she was in a clean, wrinkle free uniform and her hair, mostly dry, was pulled up into a high ponytail. Aidou had placed himself back on the wooden desk chair and had picked back up 'The Screwtape Letters'. "What are you reading?" She asked curiously throwing her dirty uniform in the hamper. "Oh C.S. Lewis," she exclaimed excitedly when he showed her the cover. "Do you like it?"

"It's interesting. I like how he depicts human's from a demon's perspective," he retorted. Aidou glanced up at her watching as she made the bed tucking in the sheets so a quarter could bounce off of it. She did all this very quickly in about 30 seconds or less then began repacking her backpack.

"I didn't really do any homework yesterday. I also have a test I didn't study for in chem. today," she murmured to herself trailing off in thought. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wing it besides what's one failing mark?" she questioned brushing off her worries. Aidou observed her slightly baffled.

It amazed him that she could take the thought of failure so easily. That word hardly even in his vocabulary, but that might have something to do with differences in how they both were raised. "Okay I'm off," Katherine announced slipping her arms through the straps of her backpack, "Aidou you can hang out here until the girls leave for class, have fun with C.S. Lewis." With that said she was out the door not waiting for a response from the boy sitting in her dorm room and sprinting down the hall.

The rest of the day went somewhat normally for Katherine. She had managed to turn all her homework in on time finishing it up before the actual classes for that homework and her test, she was fairly certain that she at least passed which was perfectly fine with her as long as she didn't have to do it over again. The only weird thing was that Kageyama had been staring at her on occasion with this kind of scheming look in his eyes. Katherine chose to ignore that. However that night was when something extremely weird happed.

Katherine had gone to sleep around 9:30 like she did every night after skyping with Lucian. She was curled up under the duvet hugging the pillow to her chest, her golden waves pooled around her head in all these crazy swirls. She must have been sleeping for a couple of hours at least when covers were ripped off of her and she was pulled from the mattress onto the floor.

THUD.

"What the hell?" She yelled in surprise. Katherine's eyes flew open ready to fight off the intruders fearing that this might be another kidnapping. Though upon seeing who had woken her up she instantly relaxed. "What are you two doing in my room? More importantly how in the hell did you two get in my room?" She groaned with annoyance.

"Hiyoki picked your lock," Natsume answered pulling Katherine from the floor. The strawberry blonde was dressed in her heavy winter coat over her comic book Pajamas with a pair of black snow boots just thrown on her feet. Hiyoki was wearing a pair of warm sweatpants with a pair of sneakers and a long sleeve shirt under a baggy hoodie. "Hiyoki grab her brown uggs," Natsume order the other girl who was rummaging through Katherine's closet.

Katherine was still thoroughly confused. There was no logical explanation why both Hiyoki and Natsume were in her room at… she looked at the clock, '_1:30 a.m.?!'_ "What are you two doing in my room at 1:30 in the morning?" She growled fighting to pull herself from Natsume's grip.

"We're hungry," Natsume whined.

"How is that my problem? It doesn't explain why you two woke me up," Katherine snapped angrily, "Let go of me."

Hiyoki came and slipped Katherine's feet in her uggs. "You promised to make us gumbo sometime," she added standing up.

"What?! I'm not making you guys gumbo at 1:30 in the morning! That takes like three hours to make which would make it 3:30 by the time we got to eat it! Besides the dining hall kitchen is closed, so just leave me alone and go back to your own damn room," she yelled enraged.

The brunette covered Katherine's mouth cutting off her protests. "The subject is resisting," she told Natsume.

"Looks as if we'll have to take radical procedures to ensure the assembly of the glorious substance often referred to as gumbo," the other girl observed. '_What the hell? This isn't fucking Star Trek! Put me down damn it. I want to go back to sleep,'_ Katherine tried to yell telepathically at them since Hiyoki was still covering her mouth. The two girls didn't get this message from Katherine or they simply just chose to ignore it because seconds later they were dragging her from her room and down the hall.

Shiki was walking slowly down one of the outside corridors of the school campus when he heard a noise coming from his right by the tree line. He watched interestedly as three day class girls emerged from the forest. Two of them were carrying one which was struggling in their grasp. "Let me go damn it! I told you two, I wasn't going to make gumbo," the struggling girl yelled thoroughly pissed.

"But you promised," the strawberry blonde girl whined.

"I didn't promise JACK!"

Rima walked up to the suspecting vampire and placed her hand on his arm. "Senri class is starting," she informed him blankly, "What are you lo—" her eyes took in the scene taking place before her widening ever so slightly. All thoughts about going to class just flew out of her mind as she fumbled for the chocolate pocky box, fished one out for her and handed a second to Shiki.

"Quite, you don't want to alert the perfects," Hiyoki hissed to the struggling girl. Katherine was twisting, turning, clawing, biting, screaming, and any other thing a person could think of to get away. All three of the girls were unaware of the eyes watching them as they dragged Katherine to one of the home economics classrooms.

Aidou, Kain and Ruka strolled aimlessly down the corridor coming to a stop when they saw Shiki and Rima standing there like statues their attention entirely focused on something else. The two of them were munching on pocky as if it was popcorn and they were in a movie theater. The three newcomers wonder what could possibly be so riveting to catch Shiki's and Rima's attention, it had to be something really good as they had never witnessed the two so engrossed in something as to not notice another person's presence.

Aidou's blue eyes widened when he saw what had captured Rima's and Shiki's attention. "Wow," Kain murmured in befuddlement at the sight before unable to really say anything else. Ruka's mouth was slightly opened in shock as was Aidou's though for completely different reasons. Aidou was in shock because he actually knew one of those girls, whereas Ruka was in shock because she had never seen any of the day class students behave like this before.

"Ouch! She bit me," one of the girls exclaimed pulling her hand back away from the hostile girl in the middle. The loosened grip allowed said girl to wiggle out of their hands falling to the ground. The girl hit the ground with a bounce, flopping on her stomach than landing on her feet and sprinting away from the other two girls. "Natsume catch her," the girl that got bit order.

The five vampires watched as the strawberry blonde, Natsume, took off like a bullet after the other girl. She was fast, for a human, taking large leaps and bounds; the interesting thing though was that the girl she was chasing seemed even faster.

"What are all of you doing here?" Ichijou questioned running up to the group of vampire-like statues. "Kaname sent me to find all of you and… What in the world?" He trailed off seeing what everyone was staring at. "Someone explain please," he requested his emerald eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"Those two girls dragged the one that is running away out of bed I'm not quite sure why," Rima pointed at Natsume and Hiyoki.

"They wanted the other girl to cook them gumbo," Shiki muttered a little bit of amusement seeping into his otherwise robotic voice.

Ichijou pried his eyes away from the scene briefly and stared at Shiki. "They want her to cook them gumbo at 1:30 in the morning?" he questioned in surprise. Shiki nodded.

"They apparently picked the lock to her room and physically dragged her out of bed," Rima added taking out another chocolate pocky. All of the spectators winced when Natsume chucked one of her boots at Katherine hitting her in the back. The sudden impact knocked the girl down, flat on her face. This gave Natsume enough time to reach her and sling her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"I should probably report this to Kaname," Ichijou muttered distractedly as they watched the girl slung over Natsume's shoulder beat her with her own shoe, "but I'm a little afraid to get in the way of them and their gumbo." The other vampires nodded in agreement.

Natsume's shoulder was digging into Katherine's stomach uncomfortably. "Natsume I swear if you don't put me down," she threatened dangerously, "I'm going to break something of yours. It might be inanimate or it might be a rib."

"I'd like to point out that ribs are kind of inanimate too Kit," Natsume quipped smugly.

"Just stop struggling," Hiyoki tried soothingly, "even if we let you down you wouldn't be able to get back in your room. You're locked out and unless you know how to pick locks—"

"I do."

"You'll just have to come with us," she finished ignoring the interruption.

Katherine groan going limp for a second. "So you're saying the sooner I make you two gumbo the sooner I can go back to sleep?" She asked feeling the swaying motions of Natsume walking.

"Precisely."

"Fine," Katherine groaned relenting, "let do this. Natsume you can put me down, I promise not to try and run. Obviously that wouldn't work again."

"You swear?"

"Natsume Abe and Hiyoki Kimura I hereby solemnly swear by the code of the slap bet that I shall not in any way, shape, or form try to escape, evade, or scheme my way away from you until I've successfully completed my task of cooking on large pot of gumbo, with both of your help of course. If I fail to keep this oath my punishment will be one slap from each of you that can be carried out anytime within the next week, however by cooking this gumbo you both have to swear on the code of the slap bet that you will not enter my room again by picking my lock. If you both still do then not only will you both get slapped, but our friendship will become null and void. Signed Katherine Taylor," she drawled jadedly.

"We agree to this oath," Natsume and Hiyoki answered simultaneously. Natsume set Katherine down on the ground again. The girl handed back the boot which Natsume took and slipped back on her foot. "You get really cranky when people wake you up," the blonde observed. Katherine just shrugged turning on her heels trudging to the home economics classrooms with Hiyoki and Natsume close on her tail.

After about 3 hours of cooking, the gumbo was done cooking. Katherine had done most of the actual cooking because Hiyoki and Natsume didn't have a clue to their way around the kitchen. She did however give them small jobs like stirring, chopping, and deveining the shrimp. It did take some time to explain was deveining the shrimp actually meant, but after she showed them how to do it and explained why it was necessary, they were both naturals.

Natsume brought the spoon up to her mouth and blew softly to cool it. "Oh my God," she moan after taking the first spoon full, "this is incredible Kit." Hiyoki nodded in agreement shoveling the gumbo into her mouth hungrily. Katherine ate about two bowls of the stuff even though she wasn't even close to hungry. The recipe that she used was Lucian's, it was her favorite, he would always make it when she was sad or just having a bad day. Rain or shine, fire and brimstone or rainbows and butterflies it always managed to make her smile.

**Author's Note:**

**The next chapter is here, yay! Unfortunately I probably won't get the next chapter up with in maybe the next 3 weeks, because I have a wedding I have to go to out of town and school is piling up and there is also the amazing holiday of Thanksgiving, which is pretty much just an excuse to see family, stuff yourself, and watch football, is coming up. **

**Truthfully I've never actually eaten gumbo. I've kind of always wanted to try it, but I haven't. I looked up some gumbo recipes in Google to get inspiration for this chapter. And for those you who may or may not have caught it I dropped a tiny smidgen of a hint about what Lucian is hiding from Katherine. It's really small, but I plan to expand on it later.**

**As is custom this is the part of the Author's note were I beg for reviews, follows and favorites. I love reviews I really do. The longer the better so don't worry about me getting bored and not reading them, I read them all. Also the more descriptive you are the easier it is for me to figure out what you guys like. So until the next chapter sayonara.**

**Sayonara = Japanese for goodbye. (Although I always thought it was Spanish before I actually took Japanese.)**

**Please Review  
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